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Morgan,  G.  Campbell  1863 

1945. 
The  practice  of  prayer 


te-evt^en/^ 


QAjUcl  (>f0-) 


i^-c-ic — o 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  PRAYER 


W^  ORES      BY      G^  . 

Campbell   Morgan 


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Fleming  H.  Retell  Companit 


NE-w  xoek: 


CHICAGO 


TORONTO 


The  Practice  of  Pray^^^^^ 

NOV  15  lojj 


B^ 


G.  CAMPBELL  MORGAN,  D.  D. 

Westminster  Chapel 

Jut/ior  of  "  The  Crises  of  the  Christ,'* 
"  The  Spirit  of  God,""  etc. 


New  York         Chicago         Toronto 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London    and    Edinburgh 


Copyright,   1906,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New    York:      158    Fifth    Avenue 

Chicago:  80  Wabash  Avenue 
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London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh;      100    Princes    Street 


To 

Marianne  Adlard 

one  of  the  hidden  workers^  who  ^^  endures 

as  seeing  him  who  is  invisible^''  and  who 

in    secret    labours    by    intercession 

with  those  who  preach  the  word 


CONTENTS 

I.  Peeliminaey 9 

II.  The  Possibility  of  Peayer      .  .  17 

III.  The  Platform  of  Prayer         .  .  27 

lY.      The  Preparation  for  Prayer  .  43 

V.       The  Plane  of  Prayer  : 

(a)  The  Purposes  of  God       .  .  61 

YI.      The  Plane  of  Prayer  : 

(&)  The  Pilgrimage  of  Man  .  .  83 

YII.    The  Practice  of  Prayer  .        .  .103 


PRELIMINARY 


*^  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  He  was  praying  in  a  certain  place,  that 
when  He  ceased,  one  of  His  disciples  said  unto  Him,  Lord,  teach  us 
to  pray,  even  as  John  also  taught  his  disciples.  And  He  said  unto 
them.  When  ye  pray,  say.  Father,  Hallowed  be  Thy  name.  Thy 
kingdom  come.  Give  us  day  by  day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive 
us  our  sins  ;  for  we  ourselves  also  forgive  every  one  that  is  indebted 
to  us,  and  bring  us  not  into  temptation. 

^^  And  He  said  unto  them.  Which  of  you  shall  have  a  friend,  and 
shall  go  unto  him  at  midnight,  and  say  to  him,  Friend,  lend  me 
three  loaves  ;  for  a  friend  of  mine  is  come  to  me  from  a  journey,  and 
I  have  nothing  to  set  before  him  ;  and  he  from  within  shall  answer 
and  say,  Trouble  me  not ;  the  door  is  now  shut,  and  my  children  are 
with  me  in  bed  ;  I  cannot  rise  and  give  thee  ?  I  say  unto  you, 
Though  he  will  not  rise  and  give  him,  because  he  is  his  friend,  yet 
because  of  his  importunity  he  will  arise  and  give  him  as  many  as 
he  needeth.  And  I  say  unto  you.  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you : 
seek,  and  ye  shall  find  :  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you. 
For  every  one  that  asketh  receiveth;  and  he  that  seeketh  findeth ;  and 
to  him  that  knocketh  it  shall  be  opened.  And  of  which  of  you  that 
is  a  father  shall  his  son  ask  a  loaf,  and  he  give  him  a  stone  ?  or  a 
fish,  and  he  for  a  fish  give  him  a  serpent  7  Or  if  he  shall  ask  an 
egg,  will  he  give  him  a  scorpion  ?  If  ye  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to 
give  good  gifts  unto  your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your 
heavenly  Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  Him?  ^^ — 
Luke  11 : 1-13. 


I 

PRELIMINARY 

ITever  did  the  disciples  prefer  a  more  impor- 
tant request  than  when  they  said  "  Lord,  teach  us 
to  pray  "  :  and  no  petition  was  more  graciously 
answered.  The  church  to-day  needs  to  bring  that 
petition  first  of  all,  but  she  needs  to  do  so  remem- 
bering that  she  already  has  the  answer  in  all 
spaciousness  and  clearness.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  case  with  the  first  disciples  it  is  certainly 
true  of  us  that  before  we  "  call  "  He  "  answers." 

I  have  chosen  as  the  general  title  of  this  book 
"  The  Practice  of  Prayer,"  because  the  purpose  of 
its  publication  is  preeminently  practical.  Any 
discussion  of  the  doctrine  of  prayer  which  does 
not  issue  in  the  practice  of  prayer  is  not  only  not 
helpful,  it  is  dangerous.  At  the  same  time  that 
practice  will  be  greatly  helped  by  an  apprehen- 
sion of  the  relative  Christian  doctrine. 

That  there  is  need  for  its  consideration  is  granted 
on  every  hand.  Side  by  side  with  a  great  enrich- 
ment there  is  a  wide-spread  impoverishment  in  the 
Church  of  God.  The  consciousness  of  wealth 
creates  the  sense  of  poverty,  and  it  is  because  we 
rejoice  in  our  gain  that  we  mourn  over  our  lack. 

As  to  enrichment,  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  church's  appreciation  of  Jesus  Christ  is  keener 
and  more  spacious  to-day  than  it  has  ever  been. 
There  is  to-day  a  wide-spread  consciousness  of  the 

11 


12  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

human  Christ  and  this  has  brought  assurance  of 
His  interest  in  all  departments  of  human  life. 
Coincidentally  with  this  there  has  arisen  a  convic- 
tion of  His  universality,  and  while  rejoicing  as 
never  in  the  warmth  and  nearness  of  the  Flesh,  we 
have  come  to  a  larger  apprehension  of  the  infini- 
tude of  the  Word.  In  practical  equipment  for 
service  too  the  Church  in  men,  in  money,  and  in 
methods,  is  far  in  advance  of  any  preceding  age. 

Yet  in  all  these  things  there  is  a  sense  of  lack  and 
of  poverty.  While  the  sense  of  the  greatness  of 
Christ  is  larger,  the  ability  to  bring  men  into  lov- 
ing, saving  touch  with  Him  sometimes  seems  less. 
The  men  at  His  disposal  are  many,  but  the  Church 
lacks  energy  to  send  them  forth.  Money  is  more 
freely  given  than  ever,  and  yet  the  greater  part  of 
the  possessions  of  the  saints  is  still  retained  for 
their  own  use.  The  methods  are  multiplied,  and 
yet  one  cannot  help  the  conviction  that  many  of 
our  organizations  are  fungus  growths,  sapping  the 
Church's  life  and  contributing  nothing  to  her 
fruitfulness. 

We  are  profoundly  conscious  of  lack.  Every- 
where there  is  a  double  sense,  that  of  power  and 
of  paralysis.  We  have  heard  the  sound  of  the 
going  in  the  top  of  the  mulberry  trees,  but  the 
wind  of  God  seems  to  tarry.  We  saw  the  flaming 
of  the  bush  among  the  Welsh  mountains  a  little 
while  ago,  but  we  have  seen  it  in  England.  All 
about  us  are  indifferent  masses.  We  still  mourn 
the  dearth  of  conversions,  and  are  painfully  con- 
scious    of    the    languishing    missionary    spirit. 


PEELIMINAEY  13 

Where  is  the  lack?  That  is  a  larger  question 
than  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  discuss. 
E'evertheless,  I  think  it  may  broadly  be  stated 
that  the  supreme  need  of  the  Church  is  the  realiza- 
tion experimentally  of  her  relationship  to  God  by 
the  Holy  Spirit.  In  the  interaction  of  life  and 
prayer  will  be  found  the  secret  of  power,  and  the 
realization  of  fellowship  with  God  will  never  be 
more  than  a  theory  save  as  prayer  becomes  a  prac- 
tice. I  am  particularly  anxious  to  write  nothing 
censorious  or  that  fails  in  recognition  of  all  the  best 
things  still  to  be  found  against  us.  I  am  pro- 
foundly conscious  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of 
prayer  on  the  highest  plane.  God  has  His  inter- 
cessors everywhere.  They  are  to  be  found  often 
in  unexpected  places,  in  men  and  women  who 
have  learned  the  secret,  and  who  by  familiar  in- 
tercourse with  God  are  channels  of  blessing  to 
men  :  but  the  majority  of  us  are  not  praying. 
While  I  thank  God  for  the  prayers  being  offered 
I  feel  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the 
whole  Church  should  know  the  secret  of  prevail- 
ing prayer,  not  only  as  a  theory,  but  in  practice. 
In  the  presence  of  this  need  the  importance  of 
our  presenting  the  same  petition  as  the  early  dis- 
ciples is  apparent.  That  petition  must  be  carefully 
understood.  It  was  a  much  larger  one  than  we  too 
often  make  it.  We  minimize  its  meaning  by  add- 
ing to  its  words.  They  did  not  say,  Lord,  teach  us 
how  to  pray,  but,  "  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray."  A 
great  many  people  know  how  to  pray,  but  they  do 
not  pray.     The  request,  Teach  us  how  to  pray, 


14  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

would  refer  simply  to  the  theory.  The  petition 
"  teach  us  to  pray,"  is  of  much  fuller  import  and 
includes  theory  and  practice. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  circumstances  in 
which  the  disciples  preferred  this  request.  "  And 
it  came  to  pass,  as  He  was  praying  in  a  certain 
place,  that  when  He  ceased,  one  of  His  disciples 
said  unto  Him,  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray."  It  is 
hardly  possible  to  read  these  words  without  see- 
ing the  connection  between  their  request  and 
their  observation  of  the  Lord.  Jesus  Himself 
was  preeminently  a  man  of  prayer,  and  there  is 
no  doubt  that  they  had  often  seen  Him  at  prayer, 
in  all  probability  had  heard  Him.  Although  He 
never  prayed  with  them  or  used  of  His  own 
prayers  the  same  words  He  used  of  theirs,  yet  it 
was  clearly  manifest  to  them  how  much  prayer 
meant  to  Him,  and  it  is  as  though  they  had  said, 
"  We  would  come  into  this  secret  of  Thine."  It 
was  a  request  arising  from  their  conviction  of  the 
value  of  prayer  in  His  life. 

The  answer  of  Jesus  was  far  more  comprehen- 
sive than  at  first  sight  may  appear.  Immedi- 
ately He  gave  them  a  pattern  and  a  parable. 
The  pattern  itself  was  not  exhaustive,  for  it  con- 
sisted of  the  recitation  of  certain  sentences  from 
the  form  of  prayer  included  in  His  Manifesto. 
He  then  gave  them  a  parable  which  taught  by 
contrast  the  readiness  of  God  to  hear  and  an- 
swer. If  through  importunity,  is  the  answer, 
they  could  be  persuaded  to  give,  how  much  more 
would  God  give  out  of  the  love  of  His  heart. 


PEELIMINAEY  15 

This  pattern  and  parable,  however,  constitute 
nothing  more  than  the  local,  immediate  and  par- 
tial answer  of  Jesus  to  their  request.  Later  He 
gave  them  much  detailed  teaching  in  His  paschal 
discourses,  and  yet  not  even  this  final  teaching 
exhausted  His  great  and  gracious  answer.  He  is 
Himself,  in  His  revelation  of  the  place  and  power 
of  prayer  in  human  life,  the  supreme  answer  to 
their  request.  By  the  whole  fact  of  incarnation 
and  perfect  life,  of  atonement,  resurrection  and 
perpetual  priesthood  does  Christ  answer  this  pre- 
liminary prayer. 

It  is  well  for  us  to  remember  that  we  are  in  di- 
rect succession  to  these  disciples,  that  their  re- 
quests are  our  requests,  and  His  answers  to  them 
are  His  answers  to  us.  Making  all  allowance  for 
a  distiuguishing  between  things  which  differ,  be- 
tween matters  which  pertain  to  the  specific  mes- 
sage of  the  early  days  of  Jesus  and  matters  con- 
nected with  the  commission  under  which  we 
serve ;  it  still  remains  true  that  His  essential 
teaching  was  intended  for  us  as  well  as  for  those 
who  first  heard  it.  When  He  stood  surrounded 
by  that  first  group  of  disciples  He  prayed,  and 
in  the  course  of  His  prayer  He  said,  "  Neither 
for  these  only  do  I  pray,  iDut  for  them  also  that 
believe  on  Me  through  their  word."  I  always 
feel  warmly  near  to  the  heart  of  Christ  when  I 
read  these  words,  for  I  know  that  He  saw  me 
also,  and  included  me  in  His  priestly  intercession. 
As  there  He  prayed  for  us  with  them,  so  also  in 
all  His  teaching  He  spoke  to  us  as  to  them. 


THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  PRAYER 


* '  Re  that  comeih  to  God  must  believe  that  He  is,  and  that  He  is 
a  rewarder  of  them  that  seek  after  Him.^^  — Hebrews  11 :  7. 

^^  If  ye  abide  in  31e,  and  My  words  abide  in  you,  ask  whatsoever 
ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  done  unto  you. ' ' — John  15  :  7. 

"  And  they  continued  stedfastly  in  the  Apostles^  teaching  and 
fellowship,  in  the  breaking  of  bread  and  the  prayers,^ ^ — Acts  2  :  42. 


II 

THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  PRAYER 

"While  the  purpose  of  the  present  series  of 
studies  is  that  of  stating  the  positive  truth  of 
the  Christian  faith  concerning  prayer,  it  is  neces- 
sary at  least  to  recognize  the  fact  that  among  the 
things  of  weakness  characterizing  our  age  is  a 
far  spread  doubt  of  the  possibility  of  prayer.  It 
is  affirmed  that  the  advance  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge has  made  it  impossible  to  believe  that  the 
desires  and  petitions  of  individual  souls  or  of 
companies  in  agreement  can  have  any  effect  upon 
the  affairs  of  a  universe  conditioned  absolutely 
within  law.  Some  there  are,  therefore,  and  those 
the  more  consistent,  who  bandon  prayer  in  every 
form,  while  others  urge  the  maintenance  of  the 
habit  of  prayer  because  of  the  effect  it  produces 
upon  those  who  pray.  These  claim  that  prayer, 
while  devoid  of  objective  value,  has  yet  a  sub- 
jective value.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  attempt 
any  philosophical  discussion  on  this  question.  I 
believe  that  the  majority  of  persons  who  read 
will  concede  at  once  the  objective  value  of  prayer, 
and  I  do  not  think  anything  said  in  defense  of 
the  theory  will  bring  conviction  to  those  in  doubt. 
It  is  only  by  praying  that  the  possibility  is 
proven.  He  has  proved  the  objective  value  of 
prayer  who  has  asked   and  received,  who  has 

19 


20  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PKAYER 

sought  and  found,  who  has  knocked  and  known 
the  door  opened  in  answer.  Yet  there  are  cer- 
tain of  the  simplest  things  which  may  be  said  in 
this  connection. 

Let  it  once  be  granted  that  prayer  has  a  sub- 
jective value  and  it  will  be  difl&cult  to  escape 
conviction  of  its  objective  value.  If  it  be  true 
that  petition  has  produced  an  effect  upon  charac- 
ter which  is  uplifting  and  ennobling,  then  that 
effect  is  due  to  belief  in  the  existence  of  One 
who  hears  and  is  able  to  grant  requests.  If  there 
be  no  such  possibility,  then  belief  in  that  which 
is  untrue  issues  in  character  which  is  true  and 
beautiful.  This  is  unthinkable.  All  the  subjec- 
tive value  of  prayer  has  grown  out  of  conviction 
of  an  objective  value.  If  a  man  asks  for  some- 
thing, it  is  because  he  believes  he  can  obtain  it 
by  asking.  Once  persuade  a  man  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  him  to  receive  an  answer  to  his  peti- 
tion and  he  will  not  persist  in  asking.  Thus  will 
the  subjective  value  of  prayer  be  inevitably 
destroyed  when  the  objective  value  is  denied. 
No  man  will  continue  to  ask  if  he  be  once  con- 
vinced that  his  asking  has  no  greater  value  than 
that  it  produces  an  effect  upon  himself.  Every- 
thing which  man  has  observed  of  the  subjective 
value  of  prayer,  of  the  influence  it  has  produced 
upon  character  and  tone,  has  been  due  to  pro- 
found conviction  of  its  objective  value.  Sincere 
and  honest  men  who  once  deny  the  objective 
value  cease  praying,  witness  such  men  as  Darwin, 
Tyndal,  Spencer  and  Huxley.     Their  philosophy 


THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  PEAYER  21 

led  them  to  the  conclusion  that  prayer  was  never 
answered  and  therefore  they  properly  and  hon- 
estly— though  as  we  think — mistakenly  and  dis- 
astrously ceased  to  pray. 

I  am  not  for  a  single  moment  denying  the  sub- 
jective value  of  prayer.  K'o  human  being  has 
ever  lived  the  life  of  familiarity  with  the  secret 
place  without  bearing  the  light  and  glory  of  it 
on  the  face.  Those  who  know  what  it  is  to  talk 
often  with  God  gain  a  tone  in  their  talking  with 
men  which  cannot  be  mistaken.  Herein  the  sub- 
jective value  of  prayer,  but  it  came  out  of  pro- 
found conviction  that  when  they  spoke  they 
were  heard,  when  they  asked  they  were  answered. 
I  believe  therefore  that  the  demonstration  of  the 
subjective  value  of  prayer  is  presumptive  evidence 
of  its  objective  value. 

Our  belief,  however,  in  the  prevailing  power  of 
prayer  has  firmer  foundations.  It  is  based  first 
of  all  upon  our  doctrine  of  God.  We  do  not  be- 
lieve that  He  is  the  slave  of  His  own  laws.  At 
the  same  time  we  do  not  believe  in  a  God  who  is 
lawless,  but  law-abiding.  His  knowledge  of  all 
law  is,  however,  such  as  to  enable  Him  in  the 
overruling  of  one  law  by  another  so  to  perform 
what  to  our  limited  vision  appears  to  be  miracu- 
lous. Our  doctrine  of  God  makes  us  believe  that 
it  is  possible  for  Him  to  do  in  answer  to  prayer 
that  which  appears  to  be  contrary  to  law,  but 
which  is  in  reality  wrought  by  the  operation  of  a 
law  of  which  we  know  nothing  in  relation  to  an- 
other law  of  which  we  know  something.     It  is 


22  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PRAYIJE 

reasonable  that  those  who  deny  the  possibility  of 
prayer  always  deny  the  existence  of  the  miracu- 
lous. What  is  a  miracle?  The  word  simply 
means  something  which  surprises,  something  for 
which  we  cannot  account,  i^ow,  the  only  reason 
why  men  deny  the  possibility  of  prayer  is  that 
j  they  deny  the  possibility  of  things  which  they 
I  cannot  understand.  That  is  the  meaning  of  the 
'denial  of  everything  which  we  call  supernatural. 
Our  doctrine  of  God  affirms  that  from  the  stand- 
point of  His  existence,  of  His  government,  of 
His  love,  there  is  nothing  supernatural.  The 
things  which  appear  to  be  supernatural  to  me, 
are  natural  to  Him.  Every  miracle  of  the  'New 
Testament  and  of  the  Old  Testament  was  a  sim- 
ple happening  which  surprised  men  who  did  not 
know  all  the  facts  and  forces  of  the  universe. 
Those  things  surprising  to  finite  men  were  actions 
perfectly  natural  to  God.  It  is  surely  time  that 
we  recognize  this.  A  great  many  things  of  which 
our  fathers  would  have  spoken  as  being  quite  as 
miraculous  as  anything  recorded  in  the  Bible,  are 
commonplaces  of  every-day  life  to  us.  We  are 
not  surprised  at  the  wonders  wrought  by  elec- 
tricity because  we  have  discovered  laws  of  which 
our  fathers  knew  nothing.  Yet  the  increase  of 
our  knowledge  makes  us  the  more  ready  to  de- 
clare that  even  to-day  we  are  but  children  of  the 
dawn.  The  Christian  affirmation  is  that  God 
dwells  in  the  light  and  there  is  no  darkness  with 
Him.  That  which  appears  to  contradict  nature 
is  in  harmony  with  the  whole  economy  of  God, 


THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  PEAYEE  23 

and  the  work  of  God  within  the  realm  of  laws 
higher  than  those  which  man  has  yet  discovered. 
It  may  be  objected  that  law  cannot  overrule  law; 
but  experience  proves  the  contrary.  I  hold  a 
book  in  my  hand.  The  law  of  gravitation  de- 
mands its  fall  but  it  remains  in  my  hand  because 
of  the  operation  of  an  overruling  law.  In  all  the 
simplest  things  of  life  this  inter-action  of  law  is 
at  work.  Now,  the  Christian  doctrine  of  God 
declares  that  He  sitteth  at  the  centre  of  the  uni- 
verse. He  rules  eternity  with  His  presence.  All 
laws  are  but  His  thoughts,  and  He  is  able  to  call 
into  operation  force  against  force,  law  against 
law.  We  therefore  believe  it  is  possible  for  His 
children  to  go  to  Him  and  ask  of  Him  and  receive 
from  Him  things  they  cannot  obtain  in  any  other 
way.  Things  absolutely  impossible  to  men  within 
the  realm  of  the  laws  they  know  may  become 
possible  to  them,  if  they  can  gain  His  ear  and 
touch  His  Heart  and  find  the  answer  of  His  over- 
ruling power.  Once  deny  that  God  can  answer 
prayer,  and  He  is  degraded  into  a  being  less  than 
His  universe,  a  prisoner  in  the  heart  of  His  own 
creation. 

Again,  our  belief  in  the  possibility  of  prayer  is 
based  upon  the  declarations  of  Jesus,  and  behind 
His  declarations  there  is  Himself.  If  when  I  ask 
I  never  have  ;  when  I  seek  I  cannot  find ;  when 
I  knock  no  door  is  opened  to  me,  then  either 
Christ  was  deceived  or  a  deceiver.  His  teaching 
was  most  explicit.  In  this  connection  one  quota- 
tion, perhaps   the  most  remarkable  of  all,   will 


24  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

suffice.  "  If  ye  abide  in  Me,  and  My  words  abide 
in  you,  ask  whatsoever  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be 
done  unto  you."  A  careful  examination  of  that 
passage  makes  it  even  more  wonderful  than  ap- 
pears at  first  sight.  The  word  "  ask  "  may  with 
perfect  accuracy  be  rendered  "  demand  as  your 
due."  No  violence  will  be  done  to  the  Lord's 
words  if  instead  of  "  whatsoever  ye  will "  we  read 
"  whatsoever  ye  are  inclined  to."  Yet  again,  the 
word  translated  "  done,"  may  be  changed  into 
"  generated,"  and  we  have  here  as  it  seems  to  me, 
the  most  stupendous  statement  regarding  prayer 
ever  uttered.  It  makes  prayer  limitless  within 
limits.  "  If  ye  abide  in  Me,  and  My  words  abide 
in  you,"  are  the  limits.  Let  these  be  observed, 
then  prayer  becomes  the  method  of  cooperation 
with  Deity.  The  life  of  true  relation  to  Himself  is 
one  in  which  desire  harmonizes  with  the  purposes 
of  God,  and  which  therefore  demands  an  answer 
which  is  provided  even  though  the  creative  force 
of  Deity  should  be  employed.  If  there  is  no 
answer  to  prayer,  then  these  are  the  words  of 
One  who  was  deceived,  or  was  a  deceiver — im- 
possible alternatives  despite  a  thousand  new-born 
philosophies.  Neither  was  He  deceived,  nor  a 
deceiver.  What  He  said  is  true  though  the 
heavens  fall.  Heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away, 
but  His  word  cannot.  To  deny  the  possibility  of 
prayer  is  to  deny  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  To  deny 
that  teaching  is  to  destroy  Him. 

Yet  once  again,  we  base  our  belief  in  the  pos- 
sibility of  prayer  upon  the  history  and  experi- 


THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  PEAYER  25 

ence  of  men.  When  science  makes  experience  the 
universal  test  of  reality  how  can  men  rationally 
exclude  the  experience  of  the  saints  of  all  ages  in 
this  matter  ?  They  tell  us  they  have  asked  and 
had ;  sought  and  found ;  knocked  and  the  door 
has  been  opened.  In  answer  to  this  it  is  affirmed 
that  they  were  all  perfectly  sincere  in  believing 
so,  but  they  were  mistaken.  Such  a  statement 
is  a  test  of  patience  to  which  I  am  not  equal.  To 
be  told  that  not  one  or  two  ;  but  hundreds,  thou- 
sands, tens  of  thousands  of  human  beings,  not  of 
one  age  or  temperament  or  geographical  posi- 
tion ;  but  in  every  age,  of  all  temperaments  and 
from  every  clime,  though  weeks  and  months  and 
years  and  decades  and  centuries  and  millenniums, 
have  all  been  deceived,  is  to  be  asked  to  believe 
something  far  more  incredible  than  anything 
which  Christianity  affirms  as  true.  If  the  testi- 
mony of  seers,  prophets,  psalmists,  saints,  confess- 
ors and  martyrs  is  all  to  go  for  nothing  ;  yet 
may  God  help  me  to  share  their  delusion,  for  it 
has  been  a  glorious  delusion  and  the  dynamic  by 
which  all  the  best  work  of  the  centuries  has  been 
done.  We  affirm  therefore,  our  belief  in  the  ob- 
jective value  of  prayer,  first  because  of  our  doc- 
trine of  God ;  secondly  because  of  the  declara- 
tions of  Jesus  Christ,  and  finally  because  of  the 
history  and  the  experience  of  the  saints. 

Yet,  let  me  go  one  step  further.  God  has  been 
reached  always  through  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ. 
Not  that  men  have  always  understood  this,  not 
that  we  perfectly  understand  it  to-day,  but  the 


26  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

fact  remains  that  fallen  man  has  always  found 
his  way  to  God  in  prayer  through  the  mystery  of 
the  mediation  of  Christ.  Now,  that  is  the  theme 
we  are  proposing  to  follow.  The  Christian  reve- 
lation is  that  of  the  constant  method  by  which 
man  has  been  able  to  pray  ;  by  w^hich  man  has 
asked  and  received,  has  sought  and  found ;  has 
knocked  and  found  the  door  opened.  So  that  the 
final  proof  of  the  objective  value  of  prayer  lies  in 
all  that  Christian  economy  which  we  claim 
creates  its  possibility,  and  which  is  to  be  con- 
sidered. 


THE  PLATFORM  OF  PRAYER 


" No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time;  but  the  only  begotten  Son^ 
which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father ^  He  hath  declared  Him.^' 
—John  1 :  18. 

"^e  that  comethfrom  above  is  above  all;  he  that  is  of  the  earth 
is  of  the  earth,  and  of  the  earth  he  speaketh  :  He  that  cometh  from 
heaven  is  above  all.  What  He  hath  seen  and  heard,  of  that  He 
beareth  witness  ;  and  no  man  receiveth  His  witness.  He  that  hath 
received  His  witness  hath  set  His  seal  to  this,  that  God  is  true.^^ — 
John  3  :  31-33. 

'^  1  am  the  good  Shepherd :  the  good  Shepherd  layeth  down  His  life 
for  the  sheep.  .  .  .  Therefore  doth  the  Father  love  Me,  because 
1  lay  down  BIy  life,  that  I  may  take  it  again.  No  one  taketh  it  away 
from  Me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  3Tyself.  I  have  power  to  lay  it  down, 
and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again.  This  commandment  received  I 
from  My  Father."— J OKH  10:  11,  17,  18. 

"  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  He  that  believeth  on  3Ie,  the 
works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also  ;  and  greater  works  than  these  shall 
he  do  :  because  I  go  unto  the  Father.  And  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask 
in  My  name,  that  will  I  do,  that  the  Father  may  be  glorified  in  the 
Son.  If  ye  shall  ask  Me  anything  in  My  name,  that  will  I  do." — 
John  14 :  12-14. 

"  And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  He  shall  give  you  another  Com- 
forter, that  He  may  be  with  you  forever,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth  : 
whom  the  world  cannot  receive ;  for  it  beholdeth  Him  not,  neither 
knoweth  Him :  ye  know  Him  ;  for  He  abideth  with  you,  and  shall  be 
in  you.  .  .  .  But  the  Comforter,  even  the  Holy  Spirit,  whom 
the  Father  will  send  in  My  name.  He  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and 
bring  to  your  remembrance  all  that  I  said  unto  you." — John  14  : 
16,  17,  26. 

^^But  when  the  Comforter  is  come,  whom  I  loill  send  unto  you 
from  the  Father,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  which  proceedeth  from  the 
Father,  He  shall  bear  witness  of  Me." — John  15:  26. 


Ill 

THE  PLATFORM  OF  PRAYER 

IlAViNa  considered  the  subject  of  the  possi- 
bility of  prayer  generally,  we  now  proceed  to 
think  of  it  particularly,  and  as  within  the  Chris- 
tian fact.  In  the  three  groups  of  Scriptures  with 
which  this  study  is  prefaced  we  have  indicated 
the  threefold  fact  which  creates  the  possibility  of 
prayer  according  to  Christian  teaching  and  ex- 
perience. The  selection  of  verses  is  not  intended 
to  be  exhaustive.  It  would  be  quite  possible  to 
take  other  single  verses  containing  the  same 
truth  in  some  other  setting.  It  is  also  self-evi- 
dent that  in  this  study  there  is  no  intention  of 
dealing  exhaustively  with  the  verses  selected.  I 
propose  only  to  deduce  from  thera  their  sugges- 
tiveness  on  this  particular  subject  of  prayer. 

In  the  first  place  let  me  state  the  general  value 
of  each  group.  In  the  first  our  Lord  is  presented 
to  us  as  the  One  who  has  revealed  the  Father. 
In  the  second  He  is  presented  as  the  One  who 
brings  us,  through  His  mediatorial  work,  into  the 
presence  of  the  Father  that  there  we  may  appear 
complete  in  the  Son,  and  therefore  unafraid.  In 
the  third  He  is  presented  to  us  as  the  One 
through  whose  perfect  and  accomplished  work 
the  Spirit  is  given  to  us  to  abide  with  us,  to  be 
in  us. 

29 


30  THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PEAYER 

This  threefold  fact  creates  the  Christian  plat- 
form of  prayer.  Its  first  phase  is  that  Christ  has 
made  such  a  revelation  of  the  Father  as  creates 
in  our  hearts  a  desire  for  prayer.  The  second  is 
that  He  has  done  such  work  for  us  as  admits  us 
to  the  presence  of  God  in  order  that  we  may 
have  the  right  to  pray.  While  the  third  is  that 
upon  the  accomplishment  of  His  work  and  as  its 
crowning  glory  He  poured  forth  His  Spirit  who 
by  indwelling  is  the  inspiration  of  our  prayer  as 
we  stand  in  Christ  in  the  presence  of  that  God 
whom  Jesus  has  perfectly  revealed. 

The  relation  of  this  threefold  fact  to  our 
previous  study  should  be  noted.  Therein  we  de- 
clared that  we  believe  prayer  to  be  possible  be- 
cause of  our  doctrine  of  God.  From  whence  did 
we  obtain  this  doctrine  ?  From  Christ's  revela- 
tion of  the  Father.  We  declared  in  the  second 
place,  that  we  believe  prayer  to  be  possible  be- 
cause of  the  teaching  of  Christ.  What  was  the 
final  teaching  of  Christ  in  answer  to  that  request 
of  His  disciples  ?  It  was  not  the  teaching  of  His 
words,  but  that  of  His  work.  The  meditation  of 
Jesus  is  His  ultimate  teaching  which  brings  con- 
viction to  our  hearts  of  the  possibility  of  prayer. 
Finally,  we  declared  that  we  believe  in  the  possi- 
bility of  prayer  because  of  the  experience  of  the 
saints.  How  has  that  experience  been  created  ? 
It  has  ever  been  the  result  of  the  indwelling  and 
inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Let  us  now  approach  the  subject  from  another 
standpoint,  by  asking  whether  prayer  is  possible 


THE  PLATFOEM  OF  PEAYEE  31 

apart  from  these  truths.  I  unhesitatingly  reply 
that  it  is  not.  If  they  are  denied  prayer  will 
cease  sooner  or  later.  There  may  be  prayer  in 
some  senses  apart  from  a  consciousness  of  these 
things.  There  is  an  instinct  for  prayer  in  human 
nature  which  expresses  itself  among  all  peoples  ; 
but  prayer,  as  we  understand  it,  as  our  fathers 
have  experienced  it,  and  as  the  JSTew  Testament 
teaches,  is  absolutely  impossible  save  on  that 
platform.  Let  us  begin  with  the  first  fact.  Sup- 
pose it  were  possible  to  blot  out  the  revelation 
of  God  which  the  word  has  received  through 
Jesus  Christ.  The  supposition  is  of  course  an 
absurdity.  The  revelation  can  never  be  entirely 
lost.  It  has  become  ingrained  in  the  common 
consciousness  of  the  age.  Those  who  deny  the 
deity  of  Jesus  and  tell  us  they  believe  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God  speaking  with  exquisite 
beauty  of  that  fatherhood,  are  speaking  of  that 
which  Christ  revealed.  For  the  sake  of  argument, 
however,  let  us  suppose  it  possible  that  the  world 
should  lose  that  consciousness  of  God  which 
Christ  has  created,  what  then  would  be  the  result  ? 
The  measure  of  intellectual  progress  apart  from 
revelation  would  be  the  measure  in  which  men 
would  cease  to  pray.  It  may  be  objected  that 
this  is  to  declare  that  prayer  is  not  an  intellectual 
exercise,  but  that  is  not  so.  When  I  refer  to  the 
measure  of  man's  intellectual  progress  apart  from 
revelation  I  am  proposing  to  omit  the  quantity 
without  which  the  intellect  is  at  once  darkened 
and  imprisoned.     No  man  is  a  full  grown  intel- 


32  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PRAYEE 

lectual  who  is  not  ready  to  receive  revelation. 
To  turn  the  back  upon  revelation  is  necessarily 
to  cease  to  pray.  Why  did  Huxley,  Tyndal, 
Darwin  and  Spencer  cease  to  pray  ?  The  an- 
swer inevitably  is,  because  they  ceased  to  believe 
in  revealed  religion  ;  they  denied  that  God  had 
revealed  Himself  to  men  directly  and  specifically. 
Some  declared  that  He  was  unknowable,  that  it 
was  not  possible  for  Him  to  reveal  Himself  to 
men  or  for  men  to  receive  any  revelation  from 
Him.  Denying  revealed  religion,  they  turned  to 
nature  and  prosecuted  their  inquiry  with  absolute 
honesty  and  splendid  devotion.  Some  of  their 
number,  as  we  well  know,  who  in  their  early 
days  possessed  a  love  of  poetry  and  music,  lost  it 
entirely  in  their  devotion  to  cold  scientific 
investigation.  What  was  their  ultimate  position  ? 
They  could  not  pray.  And  this,  because  nature 
never  reveals  that  fact  concerning  God  which 
creates  desire  for  prayer.  Nature  does  reveal 
God,  but  not  in  all  the  facts  of  His  Being.  What 
can  a  man  find  in  nature  if  he  shuts  the  book  of 
revelation,  and  declines  to  believe  that  God  has 
spoken  in  His  Word  or  through  His  Son  ?  The 
Apostle,  writing  to  the  Romans,  declared  that 
God  had  evidently  revealed  Himself  in  nature  in 
two  particulars,  namely  in  His  power  and  divin- 
ity. The  men  to  whom  reference  has  been  made 
declared  that  they  found  at  the  back  of  all  nat- 
ural phenomena  an  eternal  energy.  One  of 
them  spoke  of  this  as  "  a  double-faced  somewhat, 
a    combination    of    intelligence   and   force."     I 


THE  PLATFOEM  OF  PEAYEE  33 

accept  the  testimony  of  the  Apostle  and  of  the 
modern  scientist,  that  you  find  God  in  nature  as 
force  and  as  intelligence,  but  to  neither  of  these 
nor  to  the  two  in  cooperation,  is  it  possible  to 
pray.     I  cannot  pray  to  force.     All  I  can  do  in 
Its  presence  is  to  discover  its  law  and  obey  it  in 
order  that  I  may  constrain  it  to  serve  me  rather 
than  to  blast  me.     It  is  a  perpetual  law  of  force 
that  It  will  do  the  one  or  the  other  accordino-  to 
the  relation  which  we  bear  to  it.     Take  dynamite 
as  expressive  of  force.     To  disobey  its  law  is  to 
be  scattered  by  it  into  fragments.     By  obedience 
to  its  law  is  the  rock  blasted  and  the  highway 
created.     When  men  would  use  dynamite  they 
do  not  pray  to  it.     They  discover  its  law.     If 
God  be  only  an  eternal  energy,  then  I  cannot 
pray,  but  even  then  I  will  attempt  to  discover  the 
law  of  His  operation  and  obey  it.     During  the 
last  fifty  years  man's  conception  of  the  divine 
intelligence  has  been  greatly  enlarged.     As  man 
has  prosecuted  his  inquiry  and  come  to  under- 
stand more  perfectly  the  marvel  of  the  universe 
m  the  midst  of  which  he  lives,  he  has  come  to  a 
larger  comprehension  of   the  marvel  of  the  all- 
governing  intelligence.     For  instance,  there  was  a 
time    when    man    turned  his   telescope   to   the 
heavens  and  counted  the  stars.     A  little  later  on 
with  a  more  powerful  instrument  he  declared  that 
the    number    was    far    in    excess   of   that   first 
affirmed ;  until  at  last  Eosse  turned  his  great  re- 
fractor to  the  heavens  and  declared  that  the  stars 
cannot  be  counted.    That  is  the  scientific  posi- 


34  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

tion  to-day.  The  Bible  affirmed  it  long  ago. 
Jeremiah  sang  that  the  stars  were  without  num- 
ber, but  men  declared  it  was  the  license  of  poetry. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  it  was  cold,  hard,  scientific 
fact.  To  return,  however,  this  scientific  investi- 
gation has  enlarged  man's  conception  of  the  in- 
telligence behind  nature,  and  in  that  proportion 
it  has  been  less  easy  for  man  to  pray.  That  may 
sound  a  strange  thing  to  say,  and  yet  I  think  it 
must  be  conceded  as  true.  When  I  find  illimit- 
able intelligence  ordering  seasons  and  mar- 
shalling stars  I  cannot  believe  that  by  any  asking 
of  mine  I  can  hope  to  affect  or  persuade  such  a 
mind.     I  cannot  pray  to  intelligence. 

But  now  I  read  "  No  man  hath  seen  God  at 
any  time  ;  the  only  begotten  Son,  which  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  He  hath  declared  Him." 
Here  is  a  new  quantity,  a  new  fact,  "  the  bosom 
of  the  Father."  Put  this  into  other  words  and 
read,  "  the  heart  of  God."  Jesus  has  revealed 
the  fact  that  God  is  more  than  force  and  intelli- 
gence working  in  cooperation.  He  is  a  personal 
Being,  and  at  the  back  of  the  force  presiding 
over  it,  behind  the  intelligence  inspiring  it,  is 
love.  If  that  be  true  there  is  at  once  born, 
within  me  a  desire  to  pray.  If  it  be  true  that 
behind  all  the  rest  there  is  a  heart,  then  I  will 
pray  in  spite  of  force,  and  notwithstanding  intel- 
ligence. If  God  is  but  another  name  for  intelli- 
gence, that  intelligence  is  demonstrated  to  be  so 
stupendous  that  it  is  unthinkable  and  foolish  for 
me  to  attempt  to  pray  to  such  a  mind  as  that. 


THE  PLATFOEM  OF  PEAYER  35 

Prayer  is  impossible.  I  am  bruised  and  broken 
upon  life's  highway  but  there  is  no  help  for  me 
in  the  inscrutable  might  and  mind  of  which  I  am 
conscious.  But  out  of  the  infinite  spaces  there 
comes  to  me  a  great  love  song.  Out  of  the  bosom 
of  the  Father  comes  a  message  of  tenderness  and 
compassion.  Immediately,  bruised  and  broken 
as  I  am,  1  want  to  pray.  I  desire  to  speak  out 
of  my  sense  of  sin  and  sorrow  to  the  heart  be- 
hind force  and  intelligence  concerning  my  need. 
Agony  can  sob  itself  out  upon  a  heart.  Impo- 
tence can  trust  love.  A  sinner  can  turn  his  face 
back  towards  a  Father.  ISTeither  force  nor  intelli- 
gence, nor  both  working  in  cooperation  consti- 
tute God.  If  that  is  all  a  man  knows  of  God 
he  will  cease  to  speak  of  it  as  God,  and  presently 
will  write  the  word  with  a  small  g,  or  he  will 
simply  use  the  word  in  accommodation  to  the  age 
in  which  he  lives,  not  because  of  its  personal  sig- 
nificance. Christ  has  revealed  to  men  the  fact 
that  the  personality  behind  the  universe  is  force, 
intelligence  and  heart,  a  complete  personality,  not 
only  volitional  and  intellectual  but  emotional 
withal.  While  I  cannot  comprehend  Him  nor 
encompass  Him  within  my  finite  thinking,  I  still 
know  that  I  have  found  in  that  infinite  concep- 
tion something  which  perfectly  corresponds  to 
my  finite  life.  There  is  something  in  me  of  force 
and  intelligence,  but  the  greatest  of  me  is  my 
heart.  "When  my  finite  heart  finds  the  infinite 
heart  of  God  I  am  able  to  trust  my  finite 
strength  to  His  infinite  strength,  and  my  finite 


36  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

mind  to  His  infinite  intelligence.  This  then  is 
the  first  fact  in  the  platform  of  prayer,  that  the 
God  of  the  universe  has  a  bosom,  a  heart,  and  that 
the  Son  has  spoken  to  men  out  of  it.  By  the 
way  of  Jesus  Christ  there  has  come  to  man  this 
new  revelation  concerning  God,  the  revelation  of 
His  heart,  of  His  essential  essence,  of  His  love. 
Out  of  that  revelation  is  born  the  passion  for 
prayer  in  the  soul  of  man. 

Yet  that  fact  alone  does  not  make  prayer  pos- 
sible, neither  does  it  reveal  to  us  the  })latform 
upon  which  we  stand  to  pray.  Though  I  appear 
to  contradict  what  I  have  already  said  it  must 
be  affirmed  that  in  the  moment  when  I  stand  face 
to  face  with  God  as  the  God  of  love,  even  though 
the  desire  to  pray  is  born  within  me  I  am  con- 
scious that  I  dare  not  pray.  When  Jesus  Christ 
brings  me  into  His  presence  and  I  find  His  love, 
there  is  immediately  in  my  nature  a  going  out 
after  Him ;  but  simultaneousl}^  with  the  birth  of 
desire  comes  a  new  consciousness  wliich  seals  ray 
lips.  It  is  when  I  stand  in  the  presence  of  God 
as  love  that  I  realize  for  the  first  time  the  real 
meaning  of  sin,  and  I  am  silent.  This  assertion 
may  not  carry  conviction  at  first,  yet  think  of  it ! 
The  men  who  have  missed  the  vision  of  God's 
love  have  invariably  lost  their  sense  of  their  own 
sin.  Those  who  have  lost  the  God  of  revelation 
never  speak  of  sin  as  do  those  who  live  in  the 
light  of  revelation.  Sin  to  the  former  is  an  in- 
firmity, a  weakness,  a  process  of  development. 
It  has  recently  been  affirmed  that  this  is  an  age 


THE  PLATFOEM  OF  PEAYEE  37 

in  which  men  of  highly  developed  intelligence 
do  not  care  to  think  of  or  speak  of  sin,  but  it  is 
surely  no  proof  of  high  development  that  men 
desire  to  close  their  eyes  to  facts.  I  repeat,  that 
to  lose  tho  vision  of  God  is  to  lose  the  sense  of 
sin.  If  I  simply  think  of  an  eternal  energy 
working  in  response  to  supreme  intelligence,  I 
become  conscious  of  my  own  weakness  and  my 
own  foolishness,  but  never  of  my  sin.  It  is  when 
I  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  heart  of  God  that 
I  really  begin  to  know  what  sin  is.  To  illustrate 
briefly  from  personal  experience.  I  was  born  in 
a  Christian  home,  nurtured  by  Christian  parents, 
and  by  that  fact  graciously  and  tenderly  spared 
from  many  of  the  vulgarities  of  godlessness. 
Consequently  Mount  Sinai  with  its  thunder 
never  made  me  tremble,  never  brought  deep  con- 
viction of  sin  to  my  heart.  I  have  always  sym- 
pathized with  the  young  ruler  who  confronted 
by  the  six  final  words  of  the  decalogue,  could 
yet  look  into  the  face  of  incarnate  purity  and 
say,  "  All  these  things  have  I  observed  from  my 
youth."  But  when  I  came  to  stand  consciously, 
not  at  the  foot  of  the  mount  which  might  not 
be  touched,  but  on  the  green  hill  outside  the  city 
wall,  and  saw  in  the  mystery  of  that  passion  and 
pain  the  revelation  of  the  heart  of  God,  the  self- 
sacrificing,  self-denying  heart  of  God,  I  knew 
what  a  sinner  I  was.  When  I  came  into  the 
presence  of  God  as  love  I  found  in  love  a  light 
which  bowed  me  to  the  dust  in  shame,  and 
though  my  sad  heart  yearned  to  pray,  I  dared 


38  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

not  take  His  name  upon  my  lips,  for  He  is  love 
ineffable  who  has — let  me  say  it  reverently — de- 
nied Himself  in  order  to  help  men.  In  the  light 
of  that  love  I  discovered  that  sin  does  not  consist 
in  incidental  acts  of  passing  days,  but  in  the  es- 
sential attitude  of  selfishness.  It  is  when  Jesus 
brings  me  into  the  presence  of  the  heart  of  God 
that  I  put  my  hand  upon  my  lips  and  cry.  Un- 
clean, unclean.  I  want  to  pray.  I  dare  not 
pray.  I  have  forfeited  all  right  to  ask  for  any- 
thing from  such  love.  I  need  yet  more  than  the 
revelation  of  the  Father  before  I  can  pray. 
Thank  God  there  is  more. 

I  pass  to  the  second  group  of  Scriptures  and  in 
them  I  find  the  provision  I  seek.  "I  am  the 
good  Shepherd :  the  good  Shepherd  layeth  down 
His  life  for  the  sheep."  Death  and  resurrection 
are  in  that  sentence.  He  layeth  down  His  life,  that 
is  the  mystery  of  His  dying.  He  layeth  down  His 
life  for  the  sheep,  that  is,  in  such  a  way  that  it 
becomes  communicate  to  them.  "  No  one  taketh  it 
away  from  Me,  but  I  lay  it  down  of  Myself.  I  have 
power  to  lay  it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take 
it  again.  This  commandment  received  I  from 
M}^  Father."  Thus  in  the  radiant  splendour  of 
these  words  of  Jesus  I  see  One  who  comes  out 
from  God,  lays  down  His  life,  and  in  the  mystery 
of  that  act  clears  me  from  sin,  who  takes  His  life 
again  in  resurrection  and  in  the  might  of  that  act 
places  at  my  disposal  a  new  life  which  makes  it 
possible  for  me  to  stand  unafraid  in  the  presence 
of  God.  All  this  is  exactly  what  I  need.  I  can- 
not pray  unless  my  sin  is  forgiven  and  my  dead 


THE  PLATFOEM  OF  PEAYER  39 

spiritual  nature  is  brought  to  life.  Hear  me  in 
solemn  reverence  as  I  speak  out  of  my  heart's 
deepest  consciousness.  I  need  something  done 
for  me  whereby  the  pollution  of  sin  can  be  blotted 
out,  if  not  for  God's  sake  for  my  own.  If  you 
could  persuade  me  that  God  could  forgive  me 
without  all  that  the  Cross  means,  you  could  not 
persuade  me  that  I  could  forgive  myself.  I  must 
have  something  that  cleanses  from  the  pollution 
which  spoils  and  harms  and  clings  to  my  life. 
Sentimental  passion  and  pity  cannot  purge  the 
stain  from  my  own  conscience.  In  the  very  deep- 
est of  me  there  is  a  cry  which  answers  the  very 
word  of  revelation,  "  Without  the  shedding  of 
blood  there  is  no  remission."  Ere  I  can  enter  the 
presence  chamber  of  the  revealed  Father  and 
pray,  I  need  some  mystery  of  cleansing  and  heal- 
ing, some  new  dynamic  which  should  touch  and 
quicken  into  life  the  withered  powers  within  me. 
I  am  amazed  at  the  love  of  God,  but  I  dare  not 
pray  until  the  revealing  Son  stands  before  me  as 
Mediator  also.  "  Who  is  this  that  cometh  from 
Edom,  with  dyed  garments  from  Bozrah?  this 
that  is  glorious  in  His  apparel,  marching  in  the 
greatness  of  His  strength?"  It  is  One  with 
wounded  hands,  the  mystery  of  pain  written  upon 
His  face,  with  all  the  evidences  of  the  passion  of 
sacrificial  dying  enwrapping  Him  as  with  a  pur- 
ple robe.  Who  is  He  ?  He  is  the  Son,  the  good 
Shepherd.  The  One  who  came  after  lost  ones. 
The  One  who  found  them  bruised  and  broken ; 
mangled  and  torn  by  wolves.  The  One  who  laid 
down  His  life  to  rescue  them,  and  yet  in  such 


40  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PKAYEE 

power  as  to  be  able  to  take  it  again  and  com- 
municate it  to  them  so  that  it  became  their  life. 
The  One  who  by  such  dying  and  living  has  given 
to  men  of  His  life  the  vision,  the  virtue,  the  vic- 
tory. It  is  God  Himself  acting  out  in  the  limita- 
tion of  time  and  sense  and  flesh  that  infinite  mys- 
tery of  love  saving  through  sacrifice.  Thus  it  is 
through  the  rent  veil  of  His  flesh  that  I  enter  the 
place  of  prayer.  It  is  through  the  mystery  of 
His  accomplished  work  that  I  dare  to  draw  near. 
I  who  had  felt  the  moving  of  God's  heart  as  Jesus 
spake  and  taught  and  yet  was  made  afraid 
thereby  because  of  sin,  am  now  brought  near  by 
the  mystery  of  mediation  and  in  the  presence  of 
God  I  dare  to  pray,  standing  unafraid  in  the  light 
of  God's  love  in  the  merit  and  might  of  the  death 
and  resurrection  of  His  Son. 

And  yet  once  again,  I  cannot  pray.  The  love 
of  God  revealed  has  made  me  desire  to  pray. 
The  work  of  Jesus  as  Mediator  has  brought  me 
into  the  place  of  prayer,  but  I  was  never  more 
afraid  to  pray  than  now.  That  is  the  meaning 
of  the  Apostolic  declaration,  "  We  know  not  how 
to  pray  as  we  ought."  For  who  are  these  of 
whom  he  thus  speaks  ?  They  are  the  people 
whose  experience  is  described  in  the  chapter  which 
commences  with  "  no  condemnation,"  and  ends 
with  "  no  separation."  There  is  surely  no  time  in 
which  a  man  feels  less  able  to  pray  than  when 
having  seen  the  vision  of  God  through  Jesus,  and 
having  been  made  nigh  by  Jesus  to  God,  he  stands 
in  the  place  where  he  is  free  to  pra}^  The  nearer 
we  live  to  the  heart  of  Jesus,  and  the  closer  we 


THE  PLATFOEM  OP  PEAYEE  41 

abide  in  the  consciousness  of  God's  love  the  less 
shall  we  feel  able  to  pray.     We  sometimes  sing 

The  weakest,  feeblest  need  the  most 
The  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

That  is  a  great  truth,  and  yet  I  think  it  may  be 
written  in  another  way, 

The  strongest,  mightiest  need  the  most 
The  praying  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

That  is  to  say  those  who  have  answered  the  reve- 
lation of  love  by  absolute  abandonment  to  the 
mediating  Son ;  those  who  have  entered  most 
perfectly  into  the  experience  of  the  Divine  pro- 
vision, need  most  sorely  a  true  inspiration,  and 
are  the  most  acutely  conscious  of  their  need.  To 
stand  in  the  presence  of  such  love  by  such  grace 
is  to  shrink  back  lest  by  some  impurity  of  motive 
or  faultiness  of  desire  prayer  should  become  un- 
worthy. 

Thus  we  are  brought  to  the  third  fact  in  the 
provision  for  prayer,  that  was  dealt  with  in  the 
final  discourses  of  Jesus  when  He  promised  the 
Comforter.  The  indwelling  Spirit  interprets  to 
us  the  meaning  of  the  life  we  live  and  gives  us  to 
see  the  will  of  God  in  Jesus,  and  the  way  in 
which  we  must  act  in  order  to  realize  that  will. 
The  indwelling  Spirit  who  knows  the  will  of  God 
creates  our  new  aspirations  and  desires,  and  out 
of  these  comes  our  prayer.  Thus  standing  in  the 
light  of  the  revealed  Father  through  the  media- 
tion of  His  Son  and  answering  the  inspiration  of 
the  indwelling  Spirit  we  pray. 

In  conclusion  let  these  thoughts  be  summarized. 


42  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

By  the  coming  of  Jesus  God  has  been  so  revealed 
as  to  create  the  desire  for  prayer.  By  the  work 
of  Jesus  mediation  has  been  made  which  brings 
man  into  the  place  of  prayer.  By  the  indwelling 
of  Jesus  by  the  Spirit  desires  are  created  and 
choices  are  made  which  express  themselves  in 
prayer.  Thus  through  the  mercy  of  the  Father, 
the  merit  of  the  mediating  Son,  and  the  might  of 
the  inspiring  Spirit,  prayer  is  possible.  That  con- 
ception of  the  platform  of  prayer  must  have  an 
effect  upon  our  praying.  If  we  lack  that  vision  we 
shall  pray  ignorantly  and  foolishly.  We  shall 
ask  and  have  not  because  we  ask  amiss.  If  once 
that  platform  of  prayer  be  recognized  and  we  un- 
derstand to  whom,  and  through  whom  and  by 
whom  we  pray,  our  praying  will  become  prevail- 
ing. The  whole  truth  may  be  constantly  remem- 
bered by  the  Apostolic  benediction,  "  The  grace 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  love  of  God, 
and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Spirit."  The 
only  difference  is  that  in  this  benediction  we  com- 
mence with  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
and  then  pass  to  that  infinite  fountain,  the  love 
of  God,  and  finally  refer  to  that  abiding  fellow- 
ship, the  communion  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  The 
grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,"  "  though  He  was 
rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  He  became  poor,  that  ye 
through  His  poverty  might  become  rich."  That 
is  the  story  of  mediation.  "  The  love  of  God," 
that  is  the  whole  word  of  Christ's  revelation. 
"  The  communion  of  the  Holy  Spirit,"  that  is  the 
fact  of  the  Spirit's  indwelling  and  inspiration. 


THE  PREPARATION  FOR  PRAYER 


**  Fear  not,  little  flock  ;  for  it  is  your  Father* s  good  pleasure  to 
give  you  the  Kingdom." — Luke  12  :  32. 

' '  But  of  Him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  was  made  unto  us  wis- 
dom from  God,  and  righteousness  and  sanctificaiion,  and  redemp- 
tion."— 1  COEINTHIANS  1  :  30. 

' '  For  we  know  that  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in 
pain  together  until  now.  And  not  only  so,  but  ourselves  also, 
which  have  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even  we  ourselves  groan 
within  ourselves,  waiting  for  our  adoption,  to  wit,  the  i-edemption 
of  our  body.  For  by  hope  we  were  saved  ;  but  hope  that  is  seen  is 
not  hope :  for  who  hopeth  for  that  which  he  seeih  ?  But  if  we 
hope  for  that  which  we  see  not,  then  do  we  with  patience  wait  for  it. 
And  in  like  manner  the  Spirit  also  helpeth  our  infirmity  :  for  we 
know  not  how  to  pray  as  we  ought ;  but  the  Spirit  Himself  maketh 
intercession  for  us  with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered ;  and 
He  that  searcheth  the  hearts  knoweth  what  is  in  the  mind  of  the 
Spirit,  because  He  m,aketh  intercession  for  the  saints  according  to 
the  will  of  God.  And  we  know  that  to  them  that  love  God  all 
things  work  together  for  good,  even  to  them  that  are  called  accord- 
ing to  His  pMrpose."— Romans  8  :  23-28. 


IV 

THE  PREPARATION  FOR  PRAYER 

Let  me  at  once  clear  the  ground  by  making 
plain  what  I  do  not  mean  by  preparation  for 
prayer.  In  this  title  there  is  no  reference  to  any 
preparation  which  is  occasional  and  special.  For 
such  preparation  there  will  be  no  necessity  in 
proportion  as  the  larger  preparation  of  the  life 
is  assured.  It  is  a  great  question  whether  the 
attitude  of  mind  which  demands  some  recall  and 
readjustment  in  order  to  public  or  private  prayer 
is  at  any  time  one  which  is  honouring  to  our 
Lord  and  Master.  I  am  perfectly  well  aware 
that  this  is  a  somewhat  startling  statement,  and 
I  appeal  for  a  careful  consideration  of  the  subject 
now  to  be  dealt  with  that  the  truth  concerned, 
may  be  ascertained.  In  the  meantime  I  do  most 
confidently  affirm  that  it  ought  to  be  a  perfectly 
natural  and  easy  thing  to  turn  from  work  or  play 
to  prayer  at  any  time  or  in  any  place,  and  more- 
over, it  seems  to  me  increasingly,  as  days  pass  on 
that  any  work  or  play  which  makes  that  sponta- 
neous prayer  impossible  should  be  abandoned  at 
all  costs  and  once  for  all.  As  to  private  prayer, 
believing  as  I  do  in  its  required  constancy  I  can- 
not also  believe  in  the  necessity  for  any  process 
of  preparation.  As  to  public  prayer,  an  illustra- 
tion will  express  in  the  simplest  way  my  entire 

45 


46  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

feeling  on  the  subject.  Some  few  years  ago  in  a 
certain  city  in  England,  which  shall  be  nameless,  in 
preparation  for  special  services  I  met  the  minis- 
ters and  workers  in  conference.  In  the  course  of 
an  address  to  them  I  said  that  I  should  be  very 
glad  if  my  brethren  in  the  ministry  would  be  on 
the  platform  with  me  and  be  ready  to  lead  in 
prayer  as  they  were  asked.  At  the  close  of  the 
meeting  one  minister  came  to  me  and  said,  "  I 
should  be  so  glad  if  you  think  of  asking  me  to 
pray  if  you  will  let  me  know  the  day  before  so 
that  I  may  be  prepared."  I  replied,  "  If  I  want 
you  to  pray  I  will  let  you  know  the  day  before." 
I  never  asked  him  to  pra}^.  Some  may  object  to 
this,  believing  that  a  man  ought  to  have  time  to 
prepare  to  pray  on  such  an  occasion.  I  can  only 
say  for  myself  that  the  kind  of  preparation  which 
has  been  very  largely  followed  in  any  such  case 
has  in  my  judgment  wrought  wide-spread  harm. 
At  many  of  our  great  ecclesiastical  gatherings, 
prayers  are  heard  which  are  perfect  literary  pro- 
ductions, but  which  lack  the  passion  and  power 
which  prevail.  Consequently  I  am  not  dealing 
with  the  subject  of  how  to  prepare  for  prayer 
upon  some  special  occasion.  _If  we  learn  the 
deep  secrets  of  prayer  we  shall  be  able  to  pray 
?inywhen  and  anywhere.  We  shall  fulfill  the  in- 
junctions of  the  ^N'ew  Testament  which  startle 
us — Christ's  injunction,  "Men  ought  always  to 
pray,"  and  the  Apostolic  injunction,  "  Pray  with- 
out ceasing."  Too  often  our  method  of  dealing 
with  such  texts  is  a  revelation  of  our  unprepared- 


THE  PEEPAEATION  FOE  PEAYEE   47 

ness  for  prayer.  We  say  Christ  did  not  really 
mean  that  men  ought  always  to  pray.  He  meant 
that  they  ought  to  pray  as  often  as  they  can.  He 
meant  nothing  of  the  kind.  When  He  said, 
"Men  ought  always  to  pray,"  He  meant  it. 
When  the  Holy  Spirit  speaking  through  the 
Apostle  said  '*  Pray  without  ceasing,"  He  meant 
it.  If  we  can  but  learn  the  true  secret  of  prep- 
aration we  shall  find  that  our  whole  life  becomes 
prayer,  that  it  will  be  impossible  for  us  to  write 
a  letter  without  a  lifting  of  the  heart  to  God  for 
guidance.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  more 
we  know  of  real  prayer  the  less  time  we  may 
spend  in  the  external  and  apparent  exercise 
thereof. 

I  am  speaking  then  of  the  preparation  which 
touches  life,  and  so  makes  us  ready  for  prayer  at 
all  times.  Having  thus  attempted  to  clear  the 
ground  let  me  proceed.  I  propose  first  to  put 
the  whole  statement  into  one  brief  sentence,  and 
then  examine  that  sentence  in  detail.  The  whole 
case  then  may  thus  be  stated. 

Preparation  for  prayer  is  secured  by  response 
in  the  life  to  the  great  facts  which  make  prayer 
possible. 

That  I  maintain  is  the  inclusive  philosophy  of 
preparation  for  prayer.  Now  let  us  examine  that 
statement.  First  of  all  it  must  be  remembered 
that  all  truth  is  a  light  which  reveals  a  pathway 
in  which  man  must  walk.  Truth  always  sets  up 
a  claim,  makes  a  demand.  It  is  never  merely  a 
commodity  which  can  be  stored  and  labelled  and 


48  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

shelved.  A  man  cannot  hold  truth.  Truth  must 
hold  the  man.  Immediately  truth  presents  itself 
to  a  life  it  makes  a  demand  upon  that  life.  While 
that  is  so  in  regard  to  all  truth  it  is  preeminently 
the  case  in  regard  to  spiritual  truth.  Every  truth 
of  the  Christian  faith  taken  hold  of  by  the  mind 
makes  a  call  upon  the  will.  In  proportion  as 
that  claim  is  answered  the  life  is  sanctified.  I 
hold  the  truth  which  holds  me.  Take  that  prin- 
ciple and  apply  it  to  this  subject  of  prayer.  We 
have  seen  that  the  platform  of  prayer  consists  of 
the  threefold  fact  of  the  revelation  of  the  Father, 
the  mediation  of  the  Son,  the  inspiration  of  the 
Spirit.  I  am  prepared  for  prayer  in  proportion 
as  I  obey  the  claims  set  up  upon  my  life  by  the 
revelation  of  the  Father ;  in  proportion  as  I  yield 
myself  to  the  claims  made  upon  my  life  by  the 
mediation  of  the  Son ;  in  proportion  as  my  life 
answers  the  claims  set  up  within  me  by  the 
Spirit's  indwelling  and  inspiration.  I  see  the 
truth  about  God  revealed  in  Jesus  and  that  truth 
makes  claims  upon  me.  If  I  answer  them  I  am 
by  such  answer  prepared  for  prayer.  I  am 
brought  into  the  place  where  I  see  the  truth  con- 
cerning Christ's  great  mediatorial  work.  If  I 
answer  the  claim  that  truth  makes  upon  me  I  am 
prepared  for  prayer.  I  see  the  truth  concerning 
the  Spirit's  method  of  making  intercession.  If  I 
answer  that  indwelling  illumination,  yield  myself 
to  it,  refuse  to  quench,  or  resist  or  grieve  the 
Spirit,  and  allow  my  life  to  be  borne  along  by 
the  great  currents  of  the  river  of  God,  I  shall 


THE  PEEPAKATIO:^^  FOE  PEAYER      49 

be  prepared  to  pray,  bound  to  pray,  and  shall  al- 
ways pray.  In  other  words,  preparation  for 
prayer  is  the  life  lived  in  harmony  with  the  truth 
we  profess  to  believe.  It  is  not  spasmodic,  occa- 
sional ;  but  lies  rather  in  the  preparation  of  the 
life  itself  and  in  proportion  as  we  are  living  as 
we  ought  to  live,  we  not  only  want  to  pray,  we 
are  able  to  pray :  we  not  only  want  to  pray  and 
are  able  to  pray,  but  we  do  pray,  and  that  so  as 
to  prevail. 

Let  us  consider  this  more  particularly  by  ap- 
plication of  the  principle  in  the  case  of  the  pre- 
vious study,  our  platform  of  prayer.  We  saw  it 
to  be  of  threefold  significance,  including  the  rev- 
elation of  the  Father,  the  mediation  of  the  Son, 
the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit.  If  it  be  true  that 
we  are  prepared  for  prayer  as  we  respond  to  the 
great  truths  suggested  by  those  words,  we  now 
have  to  ask  ourselves,  "  What  is  the  revelation  of 
the  Father ;  what  the  mediation  of  the  Son ; 
what  the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  ?  "  We  need 
to  examine  these  things  in  order  to  find  out  how 
far  we  are  responsive  to  them,  how  far  we  are 
obedient,  so  that  thus  we  may  find  out  how  far 
we  are  really  prepared  for  prayer.  Such  ques- 
tions, of  course,  finally  involve  the  study  of  the 
whole  of  Christian  doctrine  :  but  for  our  present 
practical  purpose  a  less  comprehensive  inquiry 
will  suffice.  I  have  therefore  selected  the  pas- 
sages with  which  this  study  is  prefaced,  not  to 
consider  the  specific  teaching  of  each  passage,  but 
because  they  contain  light  which  will  help  us. 


50  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

Take  the  first  of  them,  "  Fear  not,  little  flock  ; 
for  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you 
the  Kingdom."  These  are  the  actual  words  of 
Jesus.  I  am  not  dealing  with  the  message  of  en- 
couragement they  contain,  great  and  gracious  as 
it  is  and  having  some  bearing  on  our  subject  of 
prayer,  as  it  has.  I  desire  rather  to  look  at  the 
verse  from  a  purely  literary  standpoint,  and  in  so 
doing  we  find  that  Jesus  recognizes  all  the 
essential  truth  concerning  God  which  He  came  to 
reveal  to  man.  Sometimes  in  ordinary  conversa- 
tion a  very  general  statement  will  reveal  the 
speaker's  whole  philosophy  on  a  certain  subject. 
When  Jesus  uttered  these  words  He  was  not  in- 
tending to  make  a  revelation  of  the  Father,  but 
His  conception  of  God  flashes  forth  in  great 
clearness  and  beauty.  If  such  a  statement  ap- 
peared in  a  press  issue  from  the  pen  of  a  modern 
author,  a  merely  literary  critic  might  be  tempted 
to  find  a  great  deal  of  fault  with  it.  I  can  im- 
agine him  saying,  "  Our  author  has  fallen  into  a 
strange  mixture  of  metaphors.  He  begins, '  Fear 
not,  little  flock,'  and  the  figure  in  his  mind  is 
evidently  that  of  the  shepherd  and  his  sheep ; 
but  forgetting  this,  he  continues,  '  it  is  your 
Father's  good  pleasure,'  showing  that  he  has 
already  mixed  the  figure  of  the  shepherd  and  the 
sheep  with  that  of  the  father  and  the  family  ;  and 
again  immediately  he  seems  to  have  forgotten  the 
previous  figures  as  he  continues  *  to  give  you  the 
Kingdom.'  "  We  know  perfectly  that  the  meta- 
phors of  Jesus  never  clash.     In  this  saying  there 


THE  PEEPAEATION  FOR  PEAYER   51 

is  a  perfect  unfolding  of  all  the  truth  concerning 
God  which  Jesus  came  to  teach  man.  He  is  re- 
vealed as  the  Shepherd,  Father,  King.  The 
picture  suggested  is  purely  Eastern,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  in  many  respects,  Eastern  con- 
ditions explain  fundamental  positions  far  more 
clearly  than  many  of  our  Western  methods  do. 
In  the  Arab  tribe  the  Sheik  is  at  once  shepherd 
of  the  jflock,  father  of  the  family  and  king  of  the 
nation.  In  those  figures  as  Jesus  used  them  He 
takes  us  back  to  the  original  ideal  of  government. 
Through  the  picture  of  the  ancient  economy  He 
reveals  the  eternal  verities  of  which  the  material 
things  are  but  the  shadow  upon  time's  surface. 
We  must  remember  that  these  words  were  spoken 
to  His  own.  When  He  addresses  those  outside 
He  calls  them  first  to  submission  to  the  Kingship 
of  God.  No  man  ever  found  God  as  Father  until 
He  recognized  Him  as  King.  In  speaking  to  His 
own  the  Master  begins  with  the  thought  of  the 
Shepherd,  then  passes  to  that  of  the  Father,  and 
finally  to  that  of  the  King.  At  the  heart  of  the 
revelation  is  the  thought  of  the  Fatherhood.  We 
shall  see  that  more  clearly  when  we  come  to  deal 
with  the  pattern  prayer,  the  whole  of  which  is 
addressed  to  the  Father,  the  first  half  asking  for 
the  setting  up  of  the  Kingdom,  and  the  last  for 
the  care  and  provision  of  the  Shepherd.  I^one  of 
these  things  were  new.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
Gospels  which  had  not  been  said  in  the  Scriptures 
of  the  old  economy.  Yet  everything  He  said  was 
new.     Men  had  said,  "The   Lord  is  my  Shep- 


52  THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

herd "  for  ages,  but  when  He  said  "  I  am  the 
good  Shepherd "  men  understood  as  they  had 
never  done  before.  In  the  midst  of  trouble,  men 
had  constantly  sung  "Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his 
children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 
Him,"  but  when  Jesus  said  "  Your  Father  know- 
eth,"  He  revealed  the  meaning  of  Fatherhood  far 
more  perfectly  than  the  song  which  spoke  of  His 
pity  merely.  Men  had  recognized  Jehovah  as 
King,  but  Jesus  came  to  reveal  the  meaning  of 
His  Kingship.  Nothing  was  new.  Everything 
was  new.  The  old  things  blossomed  into  new 
beauty  such  as  humanity  had  never  dreamed  of. 
It  is  only  in  proportion  as  we  answer  the 
claims  of  this  revelation  that  we  are  prepared  for 
prayer.  As  we  are  loyal  to  the  King,  like  unto 
the  Father,  content  with  the  provision  of  the 
Shepherd,  we  are  ready  to  pray.  All  this  is 
surely  self-evident.  How  can  we  pray  "Thy 
Kingdom  come,"  if  we  are  rebelling  against  the 
King  ?  How  is  it  that  our  prayer  so  often  fails 
to  prevail  ?  Because  we  persist  in  praying,  quite 
honestly,  "  Thy  Kingdom  come  "  and  yet  in  our 
own  heart  we  are  not  submissive  to  the  King. 
Something  in  the  life  is  permitted  which  is  con- 
trary to  His  will ;  something  in  the  business,  the 
friendships,  the  amusements.  It  is  a  solemn,  yet 
awful  truth  that  we  blaspheme  when  we  pray  for 
the  Kingdom  to  come  and  will  not  permit  it  to 
obtain  in  our  own  life.  It  is  an  infinitely  worse 
thing  that  I  should  pray  for  God's  Kingdom  to 
come  in  the  world  while  I  refuse  to  allow  it  to  be 


THE  PEEPAEATION  FOE  PEAYEE   53 

set  up  in  my  heart,  than  it  is  to  take  His  name  in 
vain  because  I  was  born  in  a  slum  and  had  never 
learned  to  revere  it.  If  prayer  is  not  prevailing  in 
our  experience  it  is  not  because  some  scientific 
teacher  has  denied  its  possibility,  but  rather  be- 
cause we  are  not  responding  to  the  revelation. 
Of  the  significance  of  the  Shepherd  I  would  speak 
in  all  tenderness.  It  is  when  I  am  resting  in  my 
Shepherd's  provision  that  I  am  able  to  pray.  If 
I  am  rebellious  against  my  lot  and  persist  in  look- 
ing upon  my  work  as  drudgery,  I  cannot  pray. 
It  is  the  heart  at  leisure  from  itself  because  per- 
fectly content  with  the  Shepherd's  provision, 
that  is  able  to  pray.  If  I  can  truly  say  that 
where'er  my  Shepherd  leads  I  am  content  be- 
cause He  leads  ;  if  through  the  desert,  I  am  glad, 
for  that  is  best  if  'tis  His  Will ;  or  if  He  leads  by 
waters  still,  I  sing,  not  because  the  waters  are 
still  and  the  pastures  green,  but  because  He 
leads ;  then  I  am  able  to  pray.  I  pray  God  to 
teach  me  that. 

Jesus  revealed  God  as  Father.  This  fact  is 
central  and  final.  How  do  we  respond  to  it  ?  A 
child  responds  to  fatherhood  when  it  reproduces 
the  father's  likeness.  That  is  something  infinitely 
beyond  loyalty  to  Kingship,  or  content  with  pas- 
ture. The  child  inherits  his  father's  nature.  If 
I  am  a  child  of  God  I  inherit  my  Father's  nature. 
The  proportion  in  which  I  yield  myself  thereto 
until  it  manifests  itself  through  me  is  the  meas- 
ure of  my  power  to  pray.  One  illustration  must 
suffice.     How  can  we  hope  to  pray  so  as  to  pre- 


54  THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PRAYEE 

vail  while  we  call  ourselves  children  of  God,  and 
yet  nurse  in  our  hearts  bitterness  and  malice 
which  are  unlike  God  ?  It  is  only  when  God's 
nature  of  love  rules  and  reigns  and  inspires  all 
our  life,  that  we  shall  want  to  pray,  and  that  our 
praying  will  prevail.  To  use  the  terminology  of 
the  praying  man,  is  not  to  pray.  To  have  the 
revelation  and  to  answer  it  in  loyalty  to  the 
King,  in  contentment  with  the  provision  of  the 
Shepherd,  in  the  reproduction  of  the  Father's 
likeness,  that  is  to  pray. 

Take  a  step  further  and  consider  the  response 
of  the  soul  to  the  fact  of  Christ's  mediation.  In 
his  letter  to  the  Corinthian  Christians  Paul  had 
been  contrasting  the  wisdom  of  men's  words  with 
the  wisdom  of  the  Word  of  the  Cross.  Assuring 
them  that  our  Gospel,  while  a  message  of  foolish- 
ness to  the  Greeks  is  not  devoid  of  wisdom,  in  a 
comprehensive  statement  he  declares  what  that 
wisdom  is,  "  Of  Him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who 
was  made  unto  us  wisdom  from  God,  and  right- 
eousness, and  sanctification  and  redemption.'' 
Whether  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification 
and  redemption  are  separate  and  differing  as- 
pects of  our  Lord's  work  in  the  believer,  or 
whether  righteousness,  sanctification  and  redemp- 
tion are  but  the  apostle's  analysis  of  wisdom,  the 
one  all-inclusive  word,  appears  to  me  immaterial, 
though  personally  I  hol^  the  latter  interpreta- 
tion. Christ  is  wisdom,  and  this  wisdom  of  God 
is  manifest  in  righteousness,  sanctification  and 
redemption.     These  three  words  cover  the  whole 


THE  PEEPAEATION  FOE  PEAYEE   55 

fact  of  Christ's  mediatorial  work.  They  reveal 
the  tenses  of  the  Christian  life.  These  tenses  are 
indicated  by  three  great  words,  righteousness, 
sanctification,  redemption.  The  past  tense  of 
salvation  is  that  experience  to  which  I  look  back. 
When  I  believed  Christ  was  imputed  to  me  as 
rifirhteousness.  That  was  the  salvation  of  my 
spirit.  The  present  tense  of  salvation  is  that 
process  through  which  I  am  now  passing.  Christ 
is  being  imparted  to  me  as  sanctification.  That 
is  the  salvation  of  my  mind.  The  future  tense 
of  salvation  is  the  life  which  is  nearer  than  when 
I  believed.  Christ  will  be  implanted  in  me  as 
redemption.  That  is  the  salvation  of  my  body. 
The  word  translated  redemption  is  always  used 
with  regard  to  the  coming  glory.  The  same 
word  occurs  in  the  letter  to  the  Eomans,  "  Even 
we  ourselves  groan  within  ourselves,  waiting  for 
our  adoption,  to  wit,  the  redemption  of  our 
body."  Of  course,  it  will  be  understood  that  I 
do  not  mean  that  the  English  word  redemption  is 
always  used  of  the  coming  glory,  but  that  the 
Greek  word  so  translated  is  always  used  in  this 
sense.  It  is  most  important  that  we  should  grasp 
this  threefold  idea  of  our  salvation.  It  consists 
in  Christ  imputed  as  righteousness,  imparted  as 
sanctification,  implanted  as  glorification.  I  was 
saved  in  the  essential  fact  of  my  being,  my  spirit, 
when  in  answer  to  my  faith  Christ  was  imputed 
to  me  as  the  righteousness  of  God.  I  am  being 
saved  in  mind  or  consciousness  as  Christ  through 
all  the  discipline  of  the  present  life  is  being  im- 


56  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEAYEE 

parted  to  me  as  sanctification.  I  shall  be  saved 
finally  when  my  body  shall  be  fashioned  anew  in 
the  likeness  of  His  glorious  beauty,  when  Christ 
shall  be  implanted  within  me  and  manifest 
through  me.  Through  the  mediatorial  work  of 
Jesus  righteousness  is  made  mine,  sanctification 
is  being  made  mine,  redemption  in  its  perfection 
will  yet  be  made  mine,  j 

If  we  are  to  pray  we  must  answer  the  claims 
of  these  truths.  How  am  I  to  answer  the  claims 
of  righteousness  ?  By  yielding  myself  to  God  as 
one  alive  from  the  dead.  In  proportion  as  I  do  ^ 
that  I  am  prepared  for  prayer.  The  dynamic  of 
prayer  is  holiness,  which  is  rectitude  of  charac- 
ter, and  righteousness,  which  is  rectitude  of  con- 
duct. Kectitude  of  conduct  can  only  grow  out  of 
rectitude  of  character.  Eectitude  of  character  is 
given  to  me  potentially  when  Christ  is  imputed 
to  me.  My  responsibility  is  that  I  yield  myself 
as  one  alive  from  the  dead  to  Jesus  Christ  for 
righteousness.  How  am  I  to  respond  to  sanctifi- 
cation ?  Sanctification  is  the  imparting  of  Christ 
to  me,  grace  for  grace.  That  is  to  say,  every 
grace  which  is  in  Him,  is  in  Him  for  me,  and  my 
responsibility  is  that  I  appropriate  day  by  day 
what  He  communicates  in  order  that  He  may  re- 
produce Himself  in  me.  '  When  in  order  that  I 
may  be  more  perfectly  conformed  to  His  image, 
the  indwelling  Christ  calls  me  to  some  new  duty, 
some  new  sacrifice,  some  new  enterprise,  I  must 
answer  with  ready  consent.  If  I  do,  prayer  pre- 
vails.   If  I  refuse,  prayer  becomes  impossible. 


THE  PEEPAEATION  FOE  PEAYEE   57 

Finally,  what  response  can  I  make  to-day  to  the 
future  tense  of  my  life  in  Christ  ?  Dr.  James 
Denney  in  his  book  on  Thessalonians  says,  "  The 
attitude  of  expectation  is  the  bloom,  as  it  were, 
of  the  Christian  character.  Without  it  there  is 
something  lacking.  The  Christian  who  does  not 
look  onward  and  upward  wants  one  mark  of 
perfection.  This  is  in  all  probability  the  point  on 
which  we  should  find  ourselves  most  from  home 
in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Christian  Church.  Not 
unbelievers  only,  but  disciples  as  well,  have 
practically  ceased  to  think  of  the  second  ad- 
vent. .  .  .  Yet  a  truth  so  clearly  a  part  of 
Scripture  teaching  cannot  be  neglected  without 
loss."  I  believe  that  to  be  most  important  truth. 
We  have  been  so  afraid  of  being  called  other- 
worldly, that  we  have  not  cared  even  to  sing 
hymns  about  heaven.  It  is  a  grave  mistake. 
We  have  been  so  afraid  that  some  one  would 
name  us  star-gazers,  that  we  have  abandoned  all 
speech  concerning  the  second  advent.  Yet  the 
only  light  that  we  can  ever  shed  upon  the  dark- 
ness of  the  world  must  be  light  beaming  from 
the  face  lifted  towards  God's  to-morrow.  In  the 
matter  of  prayer  this  is  of  supreme  importance. 
To  pray  with  prevailing  power  there  must  be  the 
vision  of  the  morning  breaking  in  the  Eastern 
sky.  It  is  the  man  who  sees  the  coming  glory 
who  knows  what  it  is  to  put  blood  and  sacrifice 
into  the  business  of  establishing  that  Kingdom 
here.  In  order  to  pray  prevailingly,  I  must  live 
in    the    power  of    the  hope  that   maketh  not 


68  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

ashamed,  having  my  face  ever  lifted  towards  the 
light  while  I  yet  look  at  the  sorrow  around  me, 
and  serve  diligently  the  will  of  my  King. 
TOnce  again,  there  must  be  response  to  the 
Spirit.  I  am  not  now  proposing  to  deal  with  the 
,  ^. .  /  whole  of  the  Spirit's  work,  but  with  that  whereby 
'^I,  <^  ^  He  creates  intercession.  I  would  suggest  three 
words  as  helpful  in  following  the  line  of  thought. 
They  are,  interpretation,  consciousness,  desire. 
The  Spirit  of  God  indwelling  interprets.  His 
interpretation  creates  a  consciousness.  That  con- 
sciousness creates  a  desire,  and  that  is  prayer. 

/  Prayer  is  the  soul's  sincere  desire 
Uttered  or  unexpressed  ; 
The  motion  of  a  hidden  fire 
That  trembles  in  the  breast. 

The  indwelling  Spirit  knows  the  will  of  God  and 
interprets  it  to  the  soul  in  whom  He  abides. 
This  He  does  by  unveiling  Christ,  who  is  the 
revelation  of  the  will  of  God  to  hs^.J  As  He  was 
the  Word  of  God  incarnate.  He  was  the  will  of 
God  incarnate.  I  come  to  Him  that  I  may  see 
what  is  God's  will  for  myself  and  for  all  men  ; 
that  I  may  understand  what  is  God's  purpose 
concerning  the  whole  world.  TAs  we  look  out 
upon  the  movements  of  the  hour  and  upon  all 
the  facts  of  life,  the  indwelling  Spirit  sets  them 
in  relation  to  the  will  of  God,  and  a  keen  con- 
sciousness is  born  within  us  of  the  failure  in  the 
midst  of  which  we  live.  Thus  the  Spirit  makes 
intercession  in  us  with  groaning  which  cannot  be 


THE  PEEPAEATION  FOE  PEAYEE   59 

uttered  as  He  gives  us  this  new  consciousness  of 
the  limitation  and  paralysis  of  all  life  without 
GodJ  As  the  Spirit  interprets  to  us  the  will  of 
God,  He  shows  the  disaster  of  being  out  of 
harmony  with  that  will.  As  the  Spirit  interprets 
the  will  of  God,  therefore.  He  makes  the  soul 
profoundly  discontented  with  everything  that  is 
contrary  thereto,  and  this  because  of  the  soul's 
supreme  content  with  the  good  and  perfect  and 
acceptable  will  of  God.  That  is  what  the  apostle 
meant  when  he  wrote,  "The  whole  creation 
groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  together  until 
now.  And  not  only  so,  but  ourselves  also,  which 
have  the  first-fruits  of  the  Spirit,  even  we  our- 
selves groan  within  ourselves."  Faber  sang  this 
sublime  and  overwhelming  truth  in  simplest 
words,  "  Earth's  sorrows  are  most  keenly  felt  in 
heaven."  The  heavenly  people  are,  therefore, 
those  who  most  acutely  feel  earth's  sorrows  and 
are  able  to  enter  into  fellowship  with  God  in 
prayer  for  the  winning  of  the  victories  of  His 
love.  Following  consciousness  of  discontent  is 
that  of  desire  for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom,  for 
the  setting  up  of  the  will  of  God,  which  means 
the  healing  of  wounds  and  the  breaking  of  chains. 
To  that  work  of  the  indwelling  Spirit  there 
must  be  ready  response.  "  Quench  not  the  Spirit." 
When  the  Spirit  interprets  the  will  of  God  for 
life,  for  home,  for  city,  for  nation,  we  must  listen 
to  no  other  philosophy,  be  seduced  by  no  other 
ideal.  As  the  glories  of  that  Kingdom  flame 
and  flash  before  us,  we  must  never  be  turned 


60  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

aside  by  the  glamour  of  the  things  of  the  world, 
the  flesh  and  the  devil.  Answer  the  Spirit.  Let 
Him  teach.  Let  Him  show  the  vision.  Believe 
the  Spirit.     "  Quench  not  the  Spirit." 

But  more,  infinitely  more.  When  the  Spirit 
revealing  the  will  of  God  for  the  world  creates  in 
the  heart  a  great  pain  and  a  great  discontent,  do 
not  let  us  check  it.  That  is  what  Christian  men 
and  women,  alas,  are  too  constantly  doing.  When 
the  story  of  the  sin  and  sorrow  of  humanity  is 
told,  they  close  their  ears  and  are  not  willing  to 
share  in  the  pain.  That  is  to  grieve  the  Spirit 
indeed.  We  ought  to  hear.  We  ought  to  know. 
We  ought  to  be  ready  to  bring  the  new  sensi- 
tiveness of  our  Christian  life  into  close  touch 
with  the  world's  agony  until  we  feel  its  pain  as 
our  very  own.  The  Spirit  desires  that  we  should 
know  its  sorrow.  His  work  is  to  interpret  to  us 
the  meaning  of  the  sob  and  sigh  and  the  agony 
of  the  world.  When  we  feel  that,  there  will 
spring  out  of  our  life  a  new  desire  which  will 
drive  us  to  prayer  that  God's  Kingdom  may 
come,  and  to  self-sacrificing  service  without  which 
such  prayer  is  blasphemy.  Thus  we  shall  begin 
to  sob  with  God  and  to  God,  in  our  sense  of  the 
world's  sorrow.  Out  of  such  prayer  the  toil  and 
travail  come  which  bring  the  Kingdom  in. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  preparation  for  prayer 
is  no  slight,  spasmodic  process.  It  is  the  supreme 
matter  of  life.  <  Yet,  thank  God,  we  can,  if  we 
will,  respond  to  this  revelation,  mediation  and 
inspiration  so  as  to  pray  with  prevailing  power. 


THE  PLANE  OF  PRAYER 
(a)  The  Purpose  of  God 


"  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be  TJiy  name.  Thy 
Kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  on  earth.' ^— - 
Matthew  6  :  9,  10. 


THE  PLANE  OF  PRAYER 

(a)  The  Purpose  of  God 

We  now  come  to  the  consideration  of  the  plane 
upon  which  prayer  is  operative,  the  subjects  con- 
cerning which  we  have  authority  to  pray.  This 
plane  is  revealed  in  the  pattern  prayer  as  it  oc- 
curs in  the  Manifesto  of  the  King. 

Some  few  preliminary  words  are  necessary.  I 
find  there  are  some  who  object  to  the  use  of  this 
prayer  by  Christian  people.  I  have  for  a  long 
time  been  endeavoring  quite  honestly  to  under- 
stand the  position  of  such,  and  I  think  the  ob- 
jections which  they  raise  may  be  briefly  stated. 
First,  there  are  those  who  do  not  use  this  prayer 
because  they  say  its  petition  for  forgiveness  is  not 
the  Christian  petition.  They  affirm  that  we  have 
no  need  now  to  ask  for  the  forgiveness  of  our 
debts  on  the  basis  of  having  forgiven  our  debtors. 
My  answer  to  such  is  that  they  certainly  do  not 
understand  the  real  meaning  of  this  prayer,  or 
else  they  do  not  understand  themselves.  Their 
objection,  however,  will  best  be  dealt  with  when 
we  come  to  the  more  particular  consideration  of 
that  petition  in  the  second  part  of  the  prayer. 
Others  do  not  use  the  prayer  because  they  de- 
clare they  have  no  sins  to  confess  or  ask  forgive- 
ness for.  Again,  I  can  only  say  all  such  either 
63 


64  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEAYEE 

do  not  understand  the  meaning  of  the  words 
"  debts  "  and  "  debtors,"  or  else  they  are  wof  ully 
self-deceived.  Perhaps  the  most  serious  and  in- 
telligent objection  is  that  of  those  who  say  that 
this  prayer  was  part  of  the  Messianic  Manifesto, 
that  it  had  to  do  with  Christ's  teaching  regard- 
ing the  Kingdom,  and  that  therefore  it  is  the 
prayer  of  the  Kingdom  and  not  the  prayer  of 
the  Church.  I  carefully  distinguished  between 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  Kingdom  of  heaven,  and 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  I  do  not  propose 
to  discuss  these  distinctions  now.  I  recognize 
that  the  Church  is,  according  to  l^ew  Testament 
teaching,  a  separate  entity  having  as  its  final 
purpose  a  vocation  in  the  ages  to  come  in  the 
heavenly  places.  While  that  is  perfectly  true 
and  should  never  be  forgotten,  indeed  must  not 
be  forgotten,  it  is  also  true  that  for  the  present 
hour  all  the  principles  of  the  Kingdom  are  commit- 
ted to  the  Church  to  be  realized  within  the  Church 
and  through  the  Church  manifested  to  the  world. 
Consequently  everything  that  Jesus  said  in  His 
Manifesto  concerning  the  Kingdom  does  apply  to 
the  Church.  As  a  matter  of  fact  that  Manifesto 
of  the  King  does  not  apply  at  all  to  the  outside 
world.  For  the  present  day  its  only  application 
is  to  the  Church.  That  is  another  point  which  I 
do  not  propose  now  to  elaborate.  It  is  sufiicient 
for  the  present  purpose  to  say  that  to  attempt  to 
bring  about  the  conditions  described  in  the  great 
Manifesto  of  the  King  among  the  vast  unregen- 
erate  masses  of  the  people  is  inevitably  to  be 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYER  65 

doomed  to  disappointment.  The  things  which 
Jesus  said  to  His  disciples,  I  maintain,  are  only 
applicable  to  those  who  are  in  His  Kingdom  and 
subject  to  His  rule.  That  Manifesto  was  the 
enunciation  of  the  ethic  of  the  Kingdom  which 
no  man  can  accept  or  obey  while  he  is  still  in  re- 
bellion against  the  King  Himself.  That  is  a 
broad  and  hurried  statement;  but  if  it  be  ac- 
cepted it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  Church  which 
for  this  age,  according  to  the  purpose  of  Jesus, 
embodies  the  principles  of  the  Kingdom  and 
manifests  them  in  the  world  this  prayer  has  its 
rightful  place.  The  supreme  answer  to  objec- 
tions to  its  use  will  be  found  in  an  understanding 
of  the  prayer  itself.  In  proportion  as  we  really 
comprehend  its  intention,  its  spaciousness,  its 
magnificence  we  shall  be  compelled  to  use  it. 
There  can  be  no  escape  from  the  use  of  it  for 
such  as  are  submitted  to  the  reign  and  Lordship 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  are  in  sympathy  with  Him 
in  His  desires  for  the  world. 

Yet  another  word  by  way  of  introduction.  It 
has  been  affirmed  and  correctly  so,  that  this  is 
not  a  new  prayer.  Its  every  petition  is  to  be 
found  in  the  Talmudio  writings.  We  are  not 
familiar  with  these  writings,  and  so  the  different 
petitions  of  the  prayer  are  known  to  us  only 
through  the  Christian  use  of  them.  There  can 
be  little  doubt,  however,  that  the  men  who 
heard  the  Master  when  He  first  gave  them  the 
prayer  were  familiar  with  all  its  petitions.  In  all 
probability  they  had  used  them  constantly  in 


66  THE  PEACTICE  OP  PEAYER 

their  worship  from  childhood  up.  Now,  while 
that  is  true,  it  is  also  true  that  the  prayer  was 
absolutely  new  as  it  came  from  the  lips  of  Jesus. 
He  gathered  together  the  things  with  which  they 
were  most  familiar  and  placed  them  in  such  per- 
fect relation  to  each  other  as  to  reveal  as  never 
before  the  whole  plane  of  prayer.  To  pray  that 
prayer  intelligently  is  to  have  nothing  else  to 
pray  for.  It  may  be  broken  up,  each  petition 
may  be  taken  separately  and  expressed  in  other 
ways,  but  in  itself  it  is  inclusive  and  exhaustive. 
The  Jewish  Eabbis  taught  the  people  what  were 
known  as  "  index  prayers."  These  consisted  of  a 
collection  of  brief  sentences,  each  one  of  which 
suggested  a  subject  of  prayer.  One  of  their 
habits  of  praying  was  to  take  such  an  index 
prayer,  recite  one  petition  at  a  time,  and  elabo- 
rate it  in  the  presence  of  God  by  carrying  out  its 
thought ;  and  endeavouring  to  express  its  full  in- 
tent. In  that  sense  the  Lord's  prayer  also  is  an 
"  index  prayer."  There  can  be  no  desire  of  the 
human  heart  which  is  inspired  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
no  petition  presented  to  the  throne  of  the  Father 
but  that  it  is  included  in  this  prayer.  The  King 
wove  together  all  the  essential  petitions  which  lay 
scattered  over  the  field  of  human  praying  into 
one  perfect  whole  which  covers  the  ground  and 
reveals  to  men  for  evermore  the  plane  upon 
which  they  may  pray.  Thus  it  is  a  pattern 
prayer. 

Turning  to  examination  I  shall  ask  you  first  of 
all  to  notice  its  structure.     I  am  so  increasingly 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  67 

convinced  of  the  value  of  eye-gate  that  I  want 
you.  to  look  at  the  prayer  in  this  form  — 

Our  Father  which  art  in  the  heavens, 
Thy  name  be  hallowed, 
Thy  Kingdom  come, 
Thy  will  be  done 

as  in  heaven  so  on  earth. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 

And 
Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  also  have 
forgiven  our  debtors. 
And 
Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us 
from  evil. 

You  will  notice  first  that  the  doxology  with 
which  the  prayer  closes  is  omitted.  I  suppose 
most  of  us  felt  some  kind  of  a  pang  when,  taking 
up  the  Kevised  Version,  we  found  it  absent.  Yet 
there  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  accuracy  of  the 
omission.  Even  so  conservative  and  scholarly  an 
expositor  as  Hengstenberg  says  concerning  this 
doxology  that  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  ought  to 
be  omitted.  He  goes  on  to  say  that  so  perfect  an 
ending  to  the  prayer  had  better  be  retained  and 
made  perpetual  use  of.  I  have  great  sympathy 
with  the  sentiment  of  that  view,  but  it  cannot  be 
permitted  in  any  strict  dealing  with  the  Scrip- 
ture. Personally  I  should  never  think  of  using 
the  prayer  without  the  doxology,  but  I  should 
ever  remember  that  the  doxology  was  the  answer 
of  man  to  the  inspired  prayer  rather  than  a  part 
thereof.  Now  let  us  notice  the  structure  of  the 
prayer  as  I  have  attempted  to  set  it  out.  The 
whole  is  introduced  by  an  invocation  — 


68  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEAYER 

Our  Father  which  art  in  the  heavens. 

This  invocation  prepares  the  way  not  for  the  first 
three  petitions  only,  but  for  the  whole  prayer. 
It  is  a  reverent  form  of  address,  and  by  the  use 
of  it  we  are  brought  into  the  presence  of  the  re- 
vealed Father. 

Beyond  the  invocation  the  prayer  falls  into  two 
I  parts.  The  first  consists  of  three  petitions  with 
I  a  qualifying  phrase ;  the  second  consists  of  three 
'    petitions. 

Let  us  look  at  the  first  three  petitions,  and  the 
relation  to  them  of  the  qualifying  phrase. 

Thy  name  be  hallowed, 
Thy  Kingdom  come, 
Thy  will  be  done 

as  in  heaven  so  on  earth. 

It  is  not  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in 
f  heaven."  The  final  phrase  refers  to  all  the  peti- 
tions, and  not  merely  to  the  last.  The  first  half 
of  the  prayer  is  therefore  one  in  which  we  ask 
that  God's  name  may  be  hallowed,  that  His  King- 
dom may  come,  that  His  will  may  be  done  on  this 
earth  as  in  heaven.  The  three  petitions  form  one 
whole  petition.  They  mark  stages  in  develop- 
ment. The  first  stage  is  the  hallowing  of  the 
Name.  That  is  followed  necessarily  by  the  crown- 
ing of  the  King  and  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom. 
When  the  King  is  crowned  and  the  Kingdom  es- 
tablished it  is  demonstrated  amongst  men  by  the 
doing  of  the  will  of  the  King  by  those  who  have 
hallowed  His  Name,  and  in  whom  the  Kingdom 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  69 

is  established.  Thus  the  first  half  of  the  prayer 
has  to  do  wholly  with  the  purposes  of  God  for 
the  world.  In  some  senses  all  my  need  is  in- 
cluded in  this  first  half.  It  is  not  expressed  there. 
The  only  thing  expressed  is  the  passion  for  the 
gaining  of  God's  victory. 

In  the  second  half  we  have  again  three  peti- 
tions — 

Give  ns  thi3  day  our  daily  bread. 

And 
Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  also 
have  forgiven  our  debtors. 
And 
Bring  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
deliver  us  from  evil. 

Notice  the  position  of  the  "  and  "  in  this  setting, 
how  it  links  the  second  petition  with  the  first,  and 
the  third  with  the  second.  Notice  also  carefully 
that  the  phrase  "  Bring  us  not  into  temptation, 
but  deliver  us  from  evil,"  is  not  two  petitions  but 
one.  We  are  constantly  hearing  of  the  seven  pe- 
titions of  the  Lord's  prayer.  There  are  only  six, 
and  to  make  two  petitions  of  the  sixth  is  to  create 
difficulties  which  cannot  be  explained.  Taken  as 
one  it  is  a  perfect  petition,  expressive  at  once  of 
the  soul's  caution  and  the  soul's  courage. 

These  last  three  petitions  have  to  do  wholly 
with  human  and  temporal  needs  as  the  three  first 
have  to  do  with  the  Divine  and  eternal  interests. 
We  shall  not  pray  these  last  three  petitions  when 
we  get  to  heaven.  I  think  the  saints  there  are 
still  praying  the  first  three.  I  think,  moreover, 
that  they  will  continue  to  pray  them  until  the 


70  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

work  is  perfected,  and  that  is  not  yet.  Before 
turning  to  fuller  consideration  of  the  first  half  of 
this  wonderful  prayer,  it  is  important  to  notice 
that  in  its  very  structure  there  is  teaching.  Jesus 
said,  "  Seek  ye  first  His  Kingdom,  and  His  right- 
eousness ;  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you."  That  was  His  order  for  life.  It  is  also 
His  order  for  prayer.  Prayer  only  fulfills  the 
Master's  ideal  when  it  begins  with  the  interests 
of  God  and  follows  with  the  needs  of  man.  I  am 
afraid  that  order  rebukes  very  much  of  our  pray- 
ing. Are  we  not  all  more  or  less  in  danger  of 
praying  first  for  all  our  own  needs,  and  then  in  a 
closing  sentence  or  two  for  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  ?  Christ  in  the  form  of  this 
prayer  teaches  us  that  our  first  business  in  prayer 
is  to  seek  with  God  for  His  victory  in  the  world  ; 
that  the  deepest  purpose  of  pra3^er  is  not  that  we 
may  obtain  what  we  need,  but  that  God  should 
gain  that  which  glorifies  His  name.  Passion  for 
the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the 
world  is  the  deepest  note  in  prayer. 

Now  let  us  take  the  first  part  of  the  prayer  and 
look  at  it  a  little  more  closely.  We  find  that  the 
word  ''heaven  "  occurs  both  in  the  invocation  and 
in  the  qualifying  phrase.  Its  recurrence  arrests 
our  attention,  and  at  once  we  are  conscious  of  a 
light  and  glory  irradiating  these  first  petitions. 
We  pause  therefore  to  inquire  what  this  word  is 
and  what  it  suggests.  We  shall  find  that  it  is 
used  in  the  New  Testament  with  reference  to 
three  distinct  spheres,  or  places,  or  regions,  which- 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  71 

ever  word  may  define  most  accurately  the  inde- 
finable spaces  beyond  our  earth.  It  is  used  first 
of  the  atmosphere.  "Behold  the  birds  of  the 
heaven."  It  is  also  used  of  the  stellar  spaces 
stretching  far  beyond  the  atmosphere.  "  I  will 
show  wonders  in  the  heavens."  It  is  used  of  still 
another  region,  of  the  dwelling  place  of  other 
beings,  of  the  place  where  the  glory  of  the  in- 
finite God  is  supremely  manifest.  "I  knew  a 
man  in  Christ,  fourteen  years  ago  (whether  in  the 
body,  I  know  not ;  or  whether  out  of  the  body,  I 
know  not ;  God  knoweth),  such  a  one  caught  up 
even  to  the  third  heaven."  We  cannot  place 
these  ideas  in  relation  to  space  because  we  know 
so  little  concerning  it.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
the  third  heaven  enwraps  and  permeates  the  sec- 
ond and  the  first.  All  I  want  now  to  make  clear 
is  that  the  word  "  heaven  "  is  used  with  a  three- 
fold significance,  and  while  poets  and  dreamers 
speak  of  a  "  seventh  heaven,"  the  Bible  speaks 
only  of  a  third.  The  word  "  heaven  "  therefore 
stands  for  the  atmosphere,  the  stellar  spaces,  and 
finally  the  dwelling  place  of  saints  and  angels. 

Yet  another  note  upon  this  word.  It  is  written 
sometimes  in  the  singular  and  sometimes  in  the 
plural  and  our  translations  do  not  show  the  dif- 
ference uniformly.  When  in  the  singular  it  refers 
to  one  or  other  of  these  heavens ;  when  in  the 
plural  it  may  refer  to  two  or  even  three.  The 
context  or  evident  sense  of  the  passage  must  de- 
cide which  of  three.  "  The  day  of  the  Lord  will 
come  as  a  thief ;  in  the  which  the  heavens  shall 


72  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

pass  away  with  a  great  noise."  The  reference 
here  is  evidently  to  the  atmospheric  and  the  stellar 
spaces,  the  two  first  heavens.  Stephen  when  dy- 
ing exclaimed,  "  Behold,  I  see  the  heavens  opened, 
and  the  Son  of  Man  standing  on  the  right  hand 
of  God."  He  saw  beyond  the  atmosphere,  and 
beyond  the  stellar  spaces  into  that  place  where 
God's  glory  is  supremely  manifest  and  the  spirits 
of  just  men  are. 

In  the  invocation  the  word  "  heaven  "  is  plural. 
In  the  qualifying  phrase  at  the  close  of  the  first 
three  petitions  it  is  singular.  "  Our  Father  which 
art  in  the  heavens."  Which  of  them?  All  of 
them.  Thus  there  is  found  at  the  portal  of  the 
prayer  the  doctrine  of  the  transcendence  and  im- 
manence of  God.  Your  thought  cannot  carry  you 
so  far  away  as  to  escape  Him ;  and  yet  where  you 
are  at  this  moment,  "  Closer  is  He  than  breathing, 
and  nearer  than  hands  and  feet."  Let  us  try  to 
realize  this  by  the  simplest  of  simple  diagrams. 

Saints  and  Seraphim 


Taking  that  dot  as  centre  I  sweep  a  segment  of 
a  circle  round   it  to  represent  the  atmosphere 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYER  73 

which  extends  for  forty  miles  outward  from  tho 
earth.  That  is  the  first  heaven  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Beyond  that  I  sweep  a  larger  segment 
representing  the  vast  stellar  spaces.  That  is  the 
second  heaven.  Beyond  that  again  is  the  third 
heaven.  In  the  first  circle  I  write  the  word  "  spar- 
rows " ;  in  the  next "  stars,"  and  in  the  next "  saints 
and  seraphim."  We  are  here  on  this  little  earth, 
and  having  seen  the  revelation  of  the  Father  and 
yielded  to  the  mediation  of  the  Son,  and  answered 
the  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  we  are  prepared  for 
prayer.  Jesus  now  says  to  us,  "  After  this  man- 
ner therefore  pray  ye ;  Our  Father  which  art  in 
the  heavens."  That  is  to  say  that  the  God  who 
hears  prayer  is  in  all  the  heavens.  That  great  and 
gracious  fact  is  proven  by  other  words  of  the  Di- 
vine oracles.  He  is  in  the  first  heaven,  the  at- 
mosphere ;  "  Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a 
farthing  ?  and  not  one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the 
ground  without  your  Father."  Let  us  most  ear- 
nestly guard  against  spoiling  the  thought  in  that 
quotation  by  adding  to  it  a  single  word.  It  is 
constantly  rendered,  "  not  one  of  them  shall  fall 
on  the  ground  without  your  Father's  hnowledgeP 
Jesus  did  not  say  that.  It  would  have  been  a 
beautiful  thing  to  say,  but  what  He  said  was  finer 
far,  "  not  one  of  them  shall  fall  on  the  ground 
without  your  Father."  He  not  only  watches  from 
afar  the  sparrow's  fall,  but  He  holds  it  dying. 
The  frailest  bird  dying  of  summer  heat  or  winter 
cold  is  not  alone.  It  dies  in  the  company  of  God. 
And  what  of  the  stars  of  the  second  heaven  ? 


74  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

"  By  the  greatness  of  His  might,  and  for  that  He 
is  strong  in  power,  not  one  is  lacking."  *' Up- 
holding all  things  by  the  word  of  His  power." 
And  what  of  the  saints  and  seraphim  ?  They  veil 
their  faces  in  the  presence  of  His  glory,  and  do 
His  will  in  the  consciousness  of  His  nearness. 

Thus  as  I  begin  to  pray  according  to  the  pattern 
which  the  Lord  gives  me,  I  find  at  the  portal  of 
my  prayer  a  doctrine  of  God  which  assures  me 
that  nothing  is  beyond  His  reach,  and  nothing  is 
too  small  for  His  presence  and  attention.  Oh, 
the  infinite  comfort  of  it  1  Mother,  praying  for 
your  boy  at  the  other  side  of  the  world,  think  of 
it  I  Your  Father  is  with  him  there.  He  is  as  near 
to  him  as  He  is  to  you.  Jesus  did  not  say.  Our 
Father  who  is  away  off  in  some  distant  heaven  far 
removed  from  us ;  but  rather,  Our  Father  who  art 
in  all  the  heavens ;  close  at  hand  so  that  the  least 
whisper  reaches  Him,  far  away  so  that  nothing 
can  escape  Him. 

Coming  to  the  phrase  with  which  these  petitions 
end  we  find  that  the  word  "  heaven  "  is  singular. 
Now,  while  I  do  not  mean  to  suggest  that  God's 
will  is  not  done  in  the  atmosphere  or  in  the  stellar 
spaces,  I  think  it  is  evident  that  Christ's  use  of  the 
singular  at  this  point  indicates  the  fact  that  His 
special  reference  was  to  that  heaven  where  God's 
glorious  presence  is  supremely  manifest,  and  where 
the  one  abiding  law  is  the  law  of  His  will.  Thus 
when  we  pray  this  prayer  we  are  asking  that  as 
His  name  is  hallowed  by  the  saints  and  seraphim, 
as  His  Kingdom  is  established  among  them,  and 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  75 

as  His  will  is  the  one  and  only  law  of  all  their  ac- 
tivity, so  on  this  earth  His  name  may  be  hallowed, 
His  Kingdom  come,  and  His  will  be  done.  It  is  a 
prayer  that  the  order  of  heaven  may  be  established 
on  earth.  When  Jesus  uttered  these  words  and 
gave  them  to  His  disciples  as  a  pattern  of  prayer, 
He  of  course  knew  perfectly  that  order  of  the  third 
heaven.  Indeed  His  vision  and  perfect  knowledge 
of  that  heavenly  order  were  the  inspiration  of  His 
desire  as  He  stood  among  the  sin  and  sorrow  of 
this  world.  As  we  interpret  the  prayer  through 
the  One  who  gave  it  to  us,  it  becomes  an  inspira- 
tion making  us  desire  to  know  the  order  of  the 
third  heaven.  Can  we  know  anything  of  that 
order  other  than  speculatively  ?  If  there  is  one 
thing  concerning  which  no  man  ever  ought  to 
speculate,  it  is  heaven.  We  have  suffered  terribly 
in  our  ideas  of  heaven  from  grotesque  imagination 
concerning  it.  I  remember  as  boy  that  heaven 
was  to  me  a  place  where  the  saints  sat  on  thrones 
forever  and  ever  wearing  white  robes  and  having 
harps  in  their  hands.  It  was  suggestive  of  deadly 
monotony  and  far  from  attractive.  Such  is  not 
the  meaning  of  heaven.  Jesus  did  not  want  us  to 
pray  that  an  order  of  that  kind  should  be  set  up 
on  earth.  He  was  Himself  a  revelation  to  man 
of  the  heavenly  order.  Of  the  four  evangelists 
John  is  the  one  who  interprets  to  us  most  perfectly 
Christ  as  the  Word  of  God  out  of  heaven.  The 
word  "  heaven  "  in  John's  Gospel  is  never  plural, 
and  it  always  has  reference  to  the  third  heaven. 
The  key  words  of  John's  writings  are  love,  light, 


76  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

life.  "  God  is  love,"  "  God  is  light,"  "  God  is  life." 
These  are  three  of  the  simplest  words,  and  yet  in 
all  human  speech  there  are  none  sublimer.  These 
words  perfectly  portray  the  order  obtaining  in  the 
heaven  of  God.  Grant  me  these  three  words  with 
all  they  suggest,  and  I  care  nothing  about  robes 
and  harps  and  thrones.  There  may  be  all  these 
things  and  will  be,  only  do  not  let  us  forget  that 
all  that  we  know  of  earth's  beauties  and  splen- 
dours are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the 
grace  and  glory  yet  to  be  revealed. 

In  the  third  heaven  love  is  the  satisfactory  im- 
pulse of  everything.  Light  is  the  perfect  intelli- 
gence in  which  all  the  inhabitants  act.  Life  is 
the  sufficient  power  by  which  they  walk  in  light 
answering  love.  Love  is  impulse.  Light  is  intel- 
ligence. Life  is  energy.  The  contrast  between 
the  order  of  the  third  heaven  and  that  obtaining 
on  earth  to-day  is  at  once  manifest.  No  one  is 
prepared  to  affirm  that  love  is  the  final  reason  of 
all  the  activity  of  the  world  to-day.  Christ  says. 
Pray  that  it  may  become  so.  Men  do  not  walk 
in  perfect  light  even  when  it  flashes  upon  their 
pathway,  for,  as  in  the  days  of  Christ  so  still, 
men  love  darkness  rather  than  light,  for  their 
works  are  evil.  Christ  says,  "  Pray  that  men 
may  come  to  love  light,  and  walk  in  it."  And 
yet  men  have  not  life  sufficient  to  do  the  highest 
and  the  best  even  when  they  know  it.  Toiler  for 
God,  in  your  specific  service  you  know  what  it  is 
to  be  weary.  Do  you  know  what  weariness  is  ? 
It  is  the  touch  of  death.     Press  your  toil  a  little 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYER  77 

further,  a  little  too  far,  and  all  the  weary  wheels 
stand  still,  and  your  eye  sees  no  light,  and  your 
heart  can  no  longer  love.  That  is  the  condition 
of  man  in  the  world  to-day.  In  God's  third 
heaven  everything  is  different.  Love  is  the  rea- 
son of  devotion  and  worship.  Love  is  the  inspi- 
ration of  giving  and  receiving.  Love  is  the  im- 
pulse of  revelation  and  explanation.  Every  move- 
ment of  the  wing  of  the  cherubim  and  every 
note  of  the  song  of  the  seraphim  are  alike  love- 
impulsed.  In  heaven  when  love  impulses  light 
falls  upon  the  pathway,  and  mistakes  are  never 
made  through  ignorance.  There  as  in  answer  to 
love  the  inhabitants  serve  in  perfect  light ;  they 
are  never  weary  for  theirs  is  endless  life.  Jesus 
said,  Pray  that  all  this  may  be  so  also  on  this 
earth.  Think  what  it  would  mean,  what  it  will 
mean  for  the  world  when  that  prayer  is  answered, 
when  "love  "  is  the  only  reason,  and  "light  "  is 
perfect  intelligence,  and  "  life  "  is  sufficient  power 
for  all  accomplishment. 

Can  that  prayer  be  answered  ?  Will  it  be  an- 
swered ?  The  first  reply  to  such  a  question  is 
that  Jesus  never  taught  men  to  utter  vain  prayers. 
The  fact  that  He  gave  us  this  prayer  is  enough 
to  make  us  offer  it  in  the  midst  of  the  world's  sin 
and  sorrow  and  sighing,  knowing  that  because  He 
taught  us  so  to  pray  the  answer  is  bound  to  come. 
And  yet  there  is  another  and  profounder  argu- 
ment for  the  reasonableness  of  this  prayer,  and 
that  is  Christ  Himself.  Once  \n  the  history  of 
the  world  that  for  which  the  prayer  asks  has  been 


78  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEAYEE 

perfectly  realized.  Once  the  world  saw,  though 
it  did  not  understand  it,  the  heavenly  order.  It 
was  manifest  when  He,  who  taught  us  to  pray, 
tabernacled  amongst  men.  Studying  the  life  of 
Jesus  as  we  have  it  in  the  fourfold  Gospel,  it  is 
perfectly  evident  that  wherever  and  whenever  we 
find  Him  the  one  reason  of  His  being,  or  doing, 
or  saying  anything  is  love.  He  was  perfectly 
and  wholly  impulsed  by  love.  This  is  true  not 
only  of  His  words  and  acts  most  evidently  ten- 
der, but  also  of  the  severe  things  He  said  and 
did.  Some  of  these  were  terrible  indeed,  scorch- 
ing and  startling  men.  On  one  occasion  He 
looked  into  the  faces  of  the  rulers  of  His  people 
and  said,  "  Woe  unto  you.  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
hypocrites";  and  it  is  impossible  to  read  these 
words  without  being  conscious  that  there  was  a 
note  of  terror  in  the  voice  of  Jesus  when  He 
cried  "Woe."  Was  that  love?  Yes,  let  Him 
finish  His  sentence,  "for  ye  devour  widows' 
houses."  Love  for  the  oppressed  creates  anger 
with  the  oppressor  for  evermore.  Is  there  any 
phrase  more  startling  than  "  the  wrath  of  the 
Lamb''''  f  I  think  that  if  we  had  desired  to  de- 
scribe wrath  figuratively  we  should  have  written, 
the  wrath  of  the  "  lion,"  but  therein  we  should 
have  failed.  It  is  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  which 
is  terrible,  the  wrath  of  One  whose  very  heart 
and  nature  are  love  and  gentleness.  Wrath  kin- 
dled by  love  is  the  fiercest  fiame  that  burns. 

It  is  also  true  that  in  all  the  life  of  Jesus  there 
was  manifest  the  light  of  a  perfectly  informed 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYER  79 

intelligence.  He  never  hesitated.  He  was  never 
perplexed.  He  never  took  counsel  even  with  His 
own  disciples.  He  consulted  neither  Conventions, 
Conferences,  nor  Committees.  Ah,  some  one  ac- 
quainted with  the  JS'ew  Testament  challenges  that 
statement,  and  suggests  that  at  least  upon  one 
occasion  He  called  His  disciples  into  Consultation. 
There  was  a  day  on  which  He  asked  one  of  them 
what  was  to  be  done  to  feed  the  multitude :  but 
continue  the  story  and  you  will  read  "  This  He 
said  to  prove  him :  for  He  Himself  knew  what 
He  would  do."  Thus  on  the  only  occasion  when 
it  is  ever  suggested  that  He  took  counsel  with  His 
disciples  the  evangelist  is  careful  to  tell  us  that  it 
was  not  that  He  might  get  advice,  but  in  order 
that  He  might  teach  them  something.  He  ever 
passed  straight  onward,  and  that  perpetually  on 
an  illuminated  pathway.  Answering  love  He 
saw  His  way  before  Him  and  without  hesitation 
walked  in  it. 

But,  it  will  be  said  it  was  not  true  of  Him  that 
He  had  endless  life — He  died.  Let  me  say  first 
in  answer  to  such  an  objection,  that  the  life  of 
Jesus  was  always  sufficient  for  the  doing  of  the 
will  of  God,  and  even  though  He  knew  in  sym- 
pathy with  us  the  heavy  weariness  which  follows 
toil,  He  was  never  weary  while  God-appointed 
service  waited  for  Him.  And  yet  again,  He  had 
the  power  of  endless  life  as  witness  His  own 
strange  words,  "  I  lay  down  My  life,  that  I  may 
take  it  again.  Ko  one  taketh  it  away  from  Me, 
but  I  lay  it  down  of  Myself.    1  have  power  to  lay 


80  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

it  down,  and  I  have  power  to  take  it  again.  This 
commandment  received  I  from  My  Father." 
Death  in  the  case  of  every  other  man  is  a  fact 
from  which  He  cannot  escape.  Death  in  the  case 
of  Jesus  was  an  act  in  the  mystery  of  which  He 
was  yet  the  supreme  Lord  and  Master.  He  died 
and  rose  again  in  fulfillment  of  these  wonderful 
words.  Once  in  human  history  the  heavenly 
order  has  been  seen  in  a  Man  who  answered  love 
and  walked  in  light,  and  had  such  life  as  enabled 
Him  to  die  and  to  live  again,  and  so  doing  to  fling 
up  a  highway  out  of  death  for  all  such  as  trust 
and  follow  Him. 

But  what  did  the  world  do  with  this  Revealer  ? 
The  story  is  that  of  the  world's  final  tragedy. 
Hatred  murdered  love.  Darkness  put  out  light. 
Death  conquered  life. 

The  Cross  was  man's  answer  to  this  prayer. 
But  again,  the  Cross  was  God's  answer  to  this 
prayer.  Put  both  things  together,  or  let  us  hear 
them  put  together  by  Peter  in  the  first  message 
delivered  after  Pentecost.  "  Him,  being  delivered 
up  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge 
of  God,  ye  by  the  hand  of  lawless  men  did  crucify 
and  slay."  Man's  attitude  towards  the  revelation 
of  the  heavenly  order — "  ye  by  the  hand  of  law- 
less men  did  crucify  and  slay,"  God's  activity  in 
the  midst  of  the  mystery  of  death — "  delivered  up 
by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of 
God."  Over  against  the  lawlessness  of  man's 
murder  the  deliberate  counsel  of  God  is  operative, 
and  thus  the  very  Cross  which  marks  man's  re- 


THE  PLAKE  OF  PEAYEE  81 

fusal  of  the  Kingdom  becomes  the  means  by 
which  that  Kingdom  is  yet  to  be  set  up. 

When  thus  we  observe  the  Man  who  taught  us 
this  prayer  and  come  to  understand  that  He  em- 
bodied in  His  own  life  the  principles  He  bids  us 
seek,  and  when  we  know  that  by  His  Cross  He 
made  it  possible  for  every  man  to  come  after  Him, 
to  answer  "  love,"  and  to  walk  in  "  light "  in  the 
power  of  "  life,"  then  we  pray  the  first  part  of 
this  prayer  as  never  before,  realizing  that  in  the 
name  and  merit  and  might  of  Him  who  taught 
us  so  to  pray  its  final  answer  must  come. 

Thus  the  pattern  prayer  teaches  us  first  that 
we  must  take  the  whole  world  into  our  praying, 
and  that  we  must  see  clearly  that  the  line  of  its 
redemption  is  that  of  return  to  conformity  to  the 
will  of  God,  made  possible  by  the  life  and  death 
and  resurrection  of  Him  who  taught  us  to  pray — 

Our  Father  which  art  in  the  heavens, 
Thy  name  be  hallowed, 
Thy  Kingdom  come, 
Thy  will  be  done, 

as  in  heaven  so  on  earth. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 

And 
Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  also 
have  forgiven  our  debtors. 
And 
Lead  us  not  into  temptation, 
but  deliver  us  from  evil. 


THE  PLANE  OF  PRAYER 

(b)  The  Pilgrimage  of  Man 


"  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive  us  our  debts, 
as  we  also  have  forgiven  our  debtors.  And  bring  us  not  into  temp- 
tation, but  deliver  us  from  the  evil  one." — Matthew  6  :  11-13. 


YI 

THE  PLANE  OF  PRAYER 
(b)  The  Pilgrimage  of  Man 

We  now  coine  to  the  second  part  of  the  pattern 
prayer.  As  the  first  part  has  to  do  with  the  in- 
terests of  God,  the  second  half  deals  with  the  pil- 
grimage of  man ;  that  is  to  say,  it  has  to  do  with 
the  needs  of  man  in  the  days  of  his  sojourn  in  this 
world.  Its  three  petitions  express  the  needs  of 
these  days  of  pilgrimage  towards  the  Father's 
home.  It  will  be  impossible  to  use  these  petitions 
when  we  reach  that  home.  They  express  our 
present  need  in  the  listening  ear  of  God. 

If  these  petitions  be  intelligently  apprehended, 
it  will  be  found  that  they  cover  the  whole  of  our 
possible  requirements.  We  may  break  up  the 
petitions,  we  may  give  expression  in  the  hours  of 
communion  with  God  to  the  detailed  and  specific 
need  of  which  we  are  conscious,  but  we  cannot 
pray  for  anything  which  is  not  included  in  these 
requests. 

In  previous  chapters  we  have  dealt  with  the 
threefold  fact  concerning  God  which  Jesus  has  re- 
vealed. He  is  King,  Father,  Shepherd.  In  that 
order  men  come  into  relationship  with  Him. 
Having  submitted  to  His  Kingship,  they  find  Him 
to  be  their  Father.     Then  as  they  begin  to  walk 

85 


86  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

along  the  pathway  which  His  will  appoints,  they 
experience  His  care  as  a  Shepherd. 

The  part  of  the  prayer  at  which  we  are  now 
to  look  is  the  cry  of  children-subjects,  asking  for 
the  privileges  of  the  flock,  for  the  care  of  the 
one  great  Shepherd.  In  it  there  are  three  peti- 
tions — 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 

And 
Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  we  also 

have  forgiven  our  debtors. 
'  And 

Bring  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us 
from  evil,  or,  from  the  evil  one. 

As  we  study  these  three  petitions  we  shall  find 
that  in  each  of  them  three  sets  of  forces  with 
which  we  daily  come  in  contact  are  recognized. 
Every  man  upon  the  pathway  of  his  pilgrimage 
has  to  do  every  day  with  God,  with  man  and 
with  the  devil.  That  fact  may  be  expressed  in 
other  words.  We  may  say  that  we  have  to  do 
with  the  upper  world,  with  the  world  about  us, 
and  with  the  under  world  of  evil.  Every  day 
we  who  are  children  of  God  have  necessarily 
some  dealings  with  God ;  every  day  we  are  in 
contact  with  our  fellow  man ;  and  I  do  not  think 
any  one  will  dispute  with  me  when  I  declare 
that  for  the  saint  of  God  there  is  no  day  in 
which  he  or  she  has  not  something  to  do  with 
the  spirits  of  evil.  The  three  worlds  are  present 
in  every  one  of  these  petitions,  but  in  each  peti- 
tion one  realm  is  referred  to  with  special  em- 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  87 

phasis.  To  take  the  first,  "  Give  us  this  day  our 
dailj  bread."  That  petition  has  to  do  pre- 
eminently with  our  relationship  to  God,  our  de- 
pendence upon  Him;  but  we  shall  find  recog- 
nized in  it  our  relationship  to  our  fellow  man, 
and  also  our  relationship  to  the  spirits  of  evil. 
The  preeminent  note  is  our  relationship  to  God. 
In  the  second  petition,  "  Forgive  us  our  debts  as 
we  also  have  forgiven  our  debtors,"  the  principal 
emphasis  is  upon  our  relationship  to  our  fellow 
men.  The  relationship  to  God  is  acknowledged 
and  the  relationship  to  the  under  world  is  evi- 
dent. In  the  final  petition,  "  Lead  us  not  into 
temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil,"  the  principal 
emphasis  is  upon  our  relationship  to  the  under 
world.  Our  relationship  to  God  is  also  recog- 
nized and  that  to  our  fellow  man  is  present. 

When  referring  to  the  threefold  fact  of  the 
heavenly  order  proceeding  from  the  government 
of  God  we  mentioned  three  words  which  are 
constantly  repeated  in  the  writings  of  John, 
"  Life,"  "  Light,"  and  "  Love."  The  first  of  these 
three  petitions  is  a  cry  for  sustenance  to  God  as 
"  Life."  The  second  is  a  cry  for  rectitude  to  God 
as  "  Light."  The  last  is  a  cry  for  victory  to  God 
as  "  Love."  So  that  the  threefold  order,  which 
we  first  are  taught  to  pray  may  be  established  in 
the  world,  is  recognized  when  we  continue  to 
pray  about  our  own  persoidal  and  individual 
needs. 

In  the  economy  of  Jesus  Christ,  prayer  never 
loses  sight  of  the  infinite  relationships  and  the 


88  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

infinite  values.  Herein  is  the  test  for  our  pray- 
ing. The  moment  prayer  becomes  request  for 
something  purely  for  self  which  may  be  spent 
upon  personal  lusts — or  if  you  will  have  a  milder 
word,  upon  personal  desires — then  prayer  is  out- 
side the  will  of  God.  If  I  ask  for  sustenance  it 
must  be  in  a  petition  which  recognizes  that  real 
life  is  related  to  the  life  of  God.  If  I  ask  for 
rectitude  it  must  be  in  a  petition  which  recog- 
nizes rectitude  as  being  in  right  relationship  with 
the  light  of  God.  If  I  ask  for  succour,  deliver- 
ance from  the  evil  of  the  under  world,  it  must  be 
in  a  petition  which  recognizes  the  tender  love  of 
God  manifesting  itself  supremely  in  its  persistent 
determination  that  I  shall  be  delivered  from  evil. 
So  that  all  prayer  is  to  be  tested  by  its  relation- 
ship to  the  infinite  and  eternal  verities  and  values. 
Let  us  now  take  the  petitions  one  by  one.  In 
the  first,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  we 
have  the  threefold  relationship.  First,  it  is  a  cry 
to  God  as  "  Life  "  for  sustenance.  There  is  also 
recognized  the  relationship  to  man.  We  cannot 
begin  to  pray  this  prayer  alone ;  we  immediately 
bring  othei's  w'lh  us  into  the  place  of  prayer  not 
as  to  bodily  presence  but  as  to  social  interest. 
That  fact  is  true  of  the  whole  prayer,  but  specially 
true  of  the  first  petition.  We  have  also  the  ref- 
erence to  the  under  world,  because  life  fed  with 
daily  bread  is  made  strong  against  the  solicita- 
tion of  the  spirits  of  evil.  The  principal  em- 
phasis is,  however,  upon  our  relation  to  God. 
What  then  does  this  prayer  mean,  "  Give  us  this 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYER  89 

day  our  daily  bread  "  ?  What  is  daily  bread  ? 
What  did  our  Lord  mean  we  were  to  pray  for  at 
this  point  ?  Let  us  omit  the  word  "  daily  "  for 
the  moment,  and  read  "  Give  us  this  day  our 
bread."  Of  what  bread  was  He  speaking? 
There  are  those  who  hold  that  this  prayer  simply 
has  reference  to  the  bread  of  the  physical  life, 
and  there  are  thousands  of  people  who  use  it  only 
in  that  sense.  There  are  other  people,  some  of 
them  gifted  expositors  of  the  Word  of  God,  who 
hold  that  our  Lord  was  not  referring  in  any  way 
to  the  physical  bread  but  that  this  is  wholly  a 
spiritual  prayer,  and  that  therefore  He  is  here  re- 
ferring to  the  sustenance  of  the  spiritual  life.  I 
do  not  agree  with  either  of  these  interpretations. 
I  believe  that  when  our  Lord  enjoins  us  to  pray 
"  Give  us  this  day  our  bread  "  He  means  by  the 
use  of  that  word  all  that  is  necessary  for  the 
sustenance  of  the  whole  life,  physical  and 
spiritual.  I  believe  that,  because  I  never  find 
Jesus  dealing  with  men  in  compartments.  He 
always  dealt  with  the  whole  man,  and  when  He 
taught  us  to  pray  this  prayer  He  intended  to 
teach  us  that  we  were  perpetually  to  remember 
that  we  are  absolutely  dependent  upon  God  for 
all  that  is  necessary  for  the  sustenance  of  our 
perfect  and  complete  life.  In  Deuteronomy  we 
read  "Man  doth  not  live  by  bread  only,  but  by 
everything  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Lord."  There,  in  these  words  He  quoted  in 
the  midst  of  His  own  temptation,  is  His  own 
recognition  of  the  need  of  physical  bread ;  and 


90  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEAYEE 

therein  is  His  affirmation  of  the  necessity  for 
another  bread,  the  Word  proceeding  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God.  He  Himself  being  the  Word  of 
God  said,  "  I  am  the  bread  of  life."  When  this 
petition  is  presented  we  are  asking  God  to  give 
us  the  sustenance  necessary  for  our  whole  life, 
that  necessary  for  our  spiritual,  and  that  neces- 
sary for  our  physical  life.  The  latter  is  secondary 
but  it  is  necessary,  and  is  as  much  supplied  by 
God  as  is  the  sustenance  for  the  spiritual  life. 
The  first  petition  of  our  need  is  one  in  which  we 
ask  our  Father  to  supply  all  that  is  necessary  for 
our  complete  sustenance  "  Give  us  this  day  our 
bread." 

I  think  that  an  understanding  of  the  word 
"  daily  "  will  emphasize  the  accuracy  of  the  in- 
terpretation I  have  given.  There  is  difficulty 
here.  As  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  a  word  quite  un- 
known in  classical  Greek,  and  it  is  a  word  which 
never  occurs  in  the  New  Testament  except  at  this 
point  in  Matthew  6  and  in  Luke  11  where  our 
Lord  took  one  or  two  petitions  of  the  prayer  and 
gave  them  to  His  disciples  in  answer  to  their  re- 
quest. It  would  be  a  fascinating  theme  for  dis- 
cussion and  speculation  as  to  where  this  word 
came  from  and  what  it  really  means.  There  are 
difficulties  in  tracing  its  root.  You  notice  in  the 
margin  of  the  Revised  Version  this  suggestion, 
^^  Give  us  this  day  our  bread  *  for  the  coming 
day.'"  If  you  have  noticed  it,  you  have  felt 
how  curious  a  suggestion  it  is.  I  want  to  speak 
with  all  due  carefulness,  and  I  do  not  speak  with- 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  91 

out  remembering  that  the  marginal  readings  of 
the  Kevised  Version  express  the  opinion  of  a  ma- 
jority of  the  translators.  Nevertheless,  I  do  not 
think  that  the  meaning  of  this  word  translated 
"  daily  "  is  "  the  coming  day."  It  is  possible  that 
it  came  from  a  root  which  means  "  to-morrow  "  ; 
but  it  is  equally  possible  that  it  came  from  a  root 
implying  "  existence,"  It  is  not  for  me  to  go  into 
that  particularly,  but  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  my 
own  belief  is  that  the  latter  is  the  root  from 
which  this  word  "  daily  "  came.  "  Give  us  this 
day  our  bread  of  existence."  Here  is  a  piece  of 
speculation  which  you  may  accept  or  forget  as 
you  like.  I  believe  Jesus  coined  that  word.  You 
cannot  find  it  anywhere  else.  Then  of  course 
there  comes  the  question  as  to  whether  Jesus 
spoke  in  Aramaic  or  Greek,  and  again  we  are  face 
to  face  with  a  question  full  of  interest,  and  one 
which  I  do  not  pretend  to  be  able  dogmatically 
or  finally  to  decide.  Personally,  I  am  of  opinion 
that  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  was  written  in  Greek, 
and  moreover  that  Jesus  spoke  a  dialect  of  Greek 
which  was  common  at  the  time.  It  is  interesting 
to  remember  that  Alford  in  his  later  editions 
adopted  that  view,  although  in  the  earlier  issues 
of  his  work  he  had  maintained  the  contrary.  I 
believe  therefore  that  Jesus  coined  this  word 
"  daily."  What  He  told  us  to  pray  was,  "  Give 
us  to-day  the  bread  we  need  for  our  existence  " ; 
that  is,  for  our  whole  life,  for  the  life  which  is 
physical,  for  the  life  which  is  spiritual. 

Passing  from  that  discussion  of  the  mere  words 


92  THE  PEACTICE  OP  PEAYEE 

of  the  petition,  let  us  think  of  its  spiritual  inten- 
tion and  meaning.  We  are  to  ask  God  every  day 
for  what  we  need  for  the  sustenance  of  our  life. 
There  are  two  ways  in  which  we  neglect  this  pe- 
tition. One  way  is  that  we  pray  it  as  though  it 
simply  referred  to  the  bread  which  feeds  the  body, 
and  forget  that  we  need  day  by  day  to  be  fed  by 
God  with  the  bread  which  supplies  our  spiritual 
life.  As  God  answers  prayer  for  the  bread  of 
the  body  so  He  answers  prayer  for  the  bread  of 
the  spirit.  How  does  God  answer  our  prayer  for 
the  bread  of  the  body  ?  Not  by  its  miraculous 
supply  but  by  the  gift  of  all  such  forces  as  are 
(  necessary  to  enable  us  in  cooperation  with  Him- 
i  self  to  obtain  for  ourselves  by  labour  the  bread 
:  we  need.  So  with  the  spiritual  bread.  God  does 
'  not  succour  the  spiritual  life  of  any  man  on  his 
simple  asking.  Our  spiritual  life  can  only  be 
maintained  and  sustained  as  we  in  personal  la- 
bour for  the  meat  that  endureth,  meditate  in  His 
Word  day  and  night,  feeding  upon  that  Bread  of 
Life  which  came  down  out  of  heaven  from  God. 
The  other  side  of  the  lesson  is  that  we  are  not 
to  forget  in  these  days  of  incipient  infidelity  in 
the  Christian  Church,  that  the  table  to  which  we 
sit  down  every  day  is  one  He  spreads.  You  have 
heard  the  old  story  of  the  man  who  met  a  boy 
in  a  village  street  carrying  a  loaf  of  bread.  He 
stopped  the  boy  and  asked  him  where  he  got  the 
loaf.  '*  From  the  baker  "  was  the  reply.  "  Yes, 
that  is  right,  but  where  did  he  get  it  ?  "  "  He 
made  it,"  said  the  boy.     "  How  did  he  make  it  ?  " 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  93 

"  With  flour."  "  Where  did  he  get  his  flour  ?  " 
"  He  ground  the  corn."  "  Where  did  he  get  his 
corn  from  ? "  "  He  got  it  from  the  farmer." 
"  Yes,  but  where  did  the  farmer  get  his  corn  ?  " 
"  Oh,  from  God,"  said  the  boy.  "  Then  you  got 
your  loaf  from  God ! "  We  have  been  very  much 
like  that  boy.  We  have  put  God  away  back,  be- 
hind the  miller  and  the  farmer,  and  have  forgot- 
ten Him  in  the  process.  While  we  recognize  the 
need  of  the  intermediation  of  all  these  instru- 
ments, we  are  not  to  forget  that  it  is  God  who 
feeds  us  with  food  sufficient  for  body  and  soul. 

Back  of  the  loaf  is  the  snowy  flour, 

And  back  of  the  flour  the  mill ; 
And  back  of  the  mill  is  the  wheat,  and  the  shower, 

And  the  sun,  and  the  Father's  will. 

This  prayer  brings  me  back  every  day  as  a  de- 
pendent being  to  God,  so  that  I  have  never  any 
right  to  pray  this  prayer  if  I  am  saying  in  my  life 
or  by  my  actions,  my  own  hand  gets  me  this  bread, 
my  own  cunning,  wit  and  wisdom  provide  for  me 
all  I  need  of  spiritual  culture. 

Notice  the  social  character  of  this  prayer.  Have 
you  ever  taken  the  trouble  to  write  out  the  per- 
sonal pronouns  in  the  first  person  ?  If  you  have, 
you  will  have  discovered  that  there  is  not  one  in 
the  singular  from  beginning  to  end, — our,  us,  our, 
us,  our,  we,  our,  us,  us.  They  are  all  plural. 
You  cannot  pray  that  prayer  by  yourself.  You 
cannot  pray  that  short  petition  by  yourself.  I 
remember  a  friend  of  mine,  a  deacon  in  one  of 


94  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

my  former  churches,  on  a  certain  Harvest  Festival, 
came  to  me  in  my  vestry  and  said — there  was  a 
deal  of  humour  in  him,  there  always  is  in  saintly 
men, — "  Well,  Pastor,  I  suppose  you  won't  use  the 
Lord's  Prayer  to-night.  We  are  going  to  thank 
Him  for  having  supplied  our  daily  bread,  you 
won't  ask  Him  for  it  ?  "  I  replied  that  we  should 
certainly  use  the  Lord's  Prayer  that  night,  and 
that  by  so  doing  we  should  put  ourselves  into  fel- 
lowship with  all  hungry  souls.  It  is  "  us  "  and 
"  our,"  not  "  me  "  and  "  mine."  When  we  come 
into  God's  presence  to  ask  for  the  supply  of  our 
own  need  we  are  to  remember  in  loving  sympa- 
thy the  need  of  all  those  who  have  not  yet  re- 
ceived. 

There  is  another  suggestive  fact  about  this 
prayer.  There  is  only  one  nominative  case  in  it. 
There  are  four  objective  and  four  possessive,  but 
only  one  nominative.  Do  you  not  know  that  the 
nominative  is  the  most  popular  case.  Men  like 
to  talk  in  the  first  person  singular,  nominative  ; 
but  the  nominative  is  only  here  once.  "  Forgive 
us  our  debts,  as  we  also  have  forgiven  our  debt- 
ors." The  only  right  in  this  prayer  to  be  the 
subject  of  a  sentence  is  that  of  the  loving  heart 
who  forgives  some  other  man.  The  prayer  is  a 
social  prayer  from  beginning  to  end.  The  social 
quality  is  manifest  in  this  first  petition  as  it  asks 
for  sustenance  not  for  "  me  and  mine,"  but  for 
"  us  and  ours." 

The  relation  to  the  under  world  is  also  recog- 
nized here.     The  man  fed,  physically  and  spirit- 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYER  95 

ually,  is  the  man  most  likely  to  be  strong  against 
the  solicitations  of  evil.  That  is  why  men  are 
perfectly  right  when  they  tell  us  that  we  insult  a 
hungry  man  when  we  offer  him  a  tract  about 
heaven.  The  first  thing  is  to  feed  him,  not  simply 
because  he  clamours  for  bread,  but  because  a  fed 
man  is  one  the  devil  does  not  like.  It  is  the 
hungry  man  the  devil  attacks.  If  that  be  true 
physically,  it  is  preeminently  true  spiritually. 
My  brother  see  to  it  that  when  morning  breaks 
you  go  to  God  for  sustenance  for  your  spiritual 
life.  That  will  make  you  strong  against  the 
allurements  of  the  devil.  So  many  people  turn 
out  to  face  the  temptations  of  the  day  spiritually 
unfed,  spiritually  hungry  therefore,  and  they  are 
attacked  by  all  kinds  of  enticements  of  the 
enemy.  It  is  the  man  fed  by  God,  spiritually 
and  physically  who  is  likely  to  overcome  in  the 
hour  of  temptation. 

In  the  second  petition  will  you  notice  that  the 
relation  to  God  comes  first.  It  always  does  even 
if  the  emphasis  is  not  there.  We  are  to  ask  for- 
giveness—this is  the  one  petition  to  which  most 
people  object,  and  some  attempt  to  escape  from 
the  prayer  because  of  it.  I  am  not  particularly 
surprised  that  people  criticise  this  petition  more 
than  any  other.  It  is  a  very  difficult  one  to  pray, 
but  let  us  remember  that  when  Christ  gave  this 
prayer  in  His  Manifesto,  He  commented  only 
upon  this  petition.  "  For  if  ye  forgive  not  men 
their  trespasses,  neither  will  your  Father  forgive 
your  trespasses."     So  we  must  neither  get  away 


96  THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PRAYEK 

from  this  petition,  nor  indulge  in  that  criticism 
which  attempts  to  accommodate  it  to  our  own 
failure.  I  had  been  speaking  on  this  subject  in 
an  American  city,  and  afterwards  received  a  letter 
from  a  lady  who  was  greatly  perturbed  because  I 
had  put  special  emphasis  upon  the  fact  that  Jesus 
distinctly  tells  us  we  are  to  ask  for  forgiveness 
when  we  have  forgiven.  She  said  that  for  years 
she  had  changed  the  form  of  that  petition  for  she 
had  been  afraid  of  it,  and  had  said,  "  Forgive  us 
our  debts,  and  we  will  forgive  our  debtors."  She 
asked  if  I  did  not  consider  this  to  be  sufficient.  I 
replied  that  God  never  does  business  on  the  basis 
of  a  promissory  note.  We  must  get  our  forgiv- 
ing done  before  we  can  ask  for  forgiveness.  That 
prayer  is  the  prayer  of  the  children  of  God,  not 
of  the  men  outside.  I  do  not  go  to  the  man  out- 
side who  has  never  given  himself  to  God  and  tell 
him  that  if  he  will  forgive  everybody,  God  will 
forgive  him.  God  begins  by  forgiving  us  of  His 
own  free  grace  without  any  condition.  The  un- 
forgiven  man  can  be  forgiven  now,  without  any 
condition  except  that  he  believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  He  will  blot  out  the  sins  of  such  like  a 
thick  cloud.  When  that  is  done  the  soul  enters 
the  Kingdom,  and  now  Jesus  superimposes  upon 
His  own  subject  as  the  condition  for  forgiveness 
that  he  should  be  forgiving.  If  we  are  unforgiv- 
ing, in  the  necessity  of  the  case  God  will  not  for- 
give us.  There  is  no  escape  from  it.  Is  not  hatred 
the  most  dastardly  and  heinous  of  all  sins- 
hatred,  the  thing  that  contradicts  the  essence  of 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  97 

God  which  is  love  ?  If  in  my  heart  there  is  bit- 
terness and  malice  and  revengefulness  what  is  the 
use  of  confessing  other  sins  and  expecting  to  be  for- 
given, nursing  the  while  the  most  damnable  sin  ? 
We  who  are  children  of  God,  subjects  of  the  King, 
flock  of  the  Shepherd,  cannot  be  forgiven  unless 
we  forgive,  for  our  refusal  to  forgive  is  the  deepest 
and  worst  sin  of  all.  I  speak  with  such  emphasis 
because  I  think  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
cursed  by  an  unforgiving  spirit.  Men  and  women 
are  sitting  down  at  the  table  of  the  Lord  who  do 
not  speak  to  each  other.  We  are  unforgiving  in 
our  theological  controversies.  The  sin  for  which 
Moses  was  excluded  from  the  earthly  promised 
land  was  that  "  He  spake  unadvisedly  with  his 
lips,"  he  manifested  a  provoked  spirit  in  a  right- 
eous cause.  A  righteous  cause,  but  an  angry,  un- 
forgiving man;  and  God  shut  him  out  of  the 
land  of  earthly  promise.  For  evermore  Jesus 
Christ  is  saying  to  us  every  day,  "  Come  and  have 
your  Father's  forgiveness  for  trespasses,  but  do 
not  ask  for  that  until  you  have  forgiven  the  man 
who  has  trespassed  against  you."  What  is  tres- 
pass ?  For  notice,  in  the  actual  text  our  Lord 
used  the  words  "  Debt "  and  "  debtors  "  and  in 
the  exposition  which  follows.  He  used  the  word 
"trespasses."  What  then  is  debt,  trespass? 
There  is  a  common  quality  in  our  Master's  use  of 
the  two  words  which  helps  us  to  understand  it. 
Trespass  is  intentional  error,  or  willful  transgres- 
sion. Trench  has  said  the  word  means  falling 
where  one  should  have  stood  upright,  whether 


98  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

one  could  help  it  or  not.  There  of  course  arises 
the  whole  question  of  sin  and  of  what  sin  is.  We 
still  believe  that  the  whole  meaning  of  the  'New 
Testament  evangel  is  that  a  man  need  not  sin 
willfully,  but  we  still  maintain  that  so  long  as  we 
walk  the  pathway  of  the  earthly  pilgrimage,  in 
comparison  with  God's  high  ideal  we  are  as  tres- 
passers, coming  short,  so  that  of  our  best  service 
we  have  to  say  "  we  are  unprofitable  servants." 

I  pity  the  man  who  tells  me  he  cannot  pray 
this  prayer  because  he  never  trespasses.  I  pity 
him  because  of  his  dim  comprehension  of  the  real 
meaning  of  holiness  and  of  sin.  To  the  man  who 
walks  in  light  there  is  no  day  when  he  does  not 
find  it  necessary  to  confess  his  trespasses.  Let 
us  not  forget  this  flaming  scorching  word  of  the 
Master,  that  we  are  not  to  ask  for  forgiveness 
until  we  have  forgiven.  "  If  therefore  thou  art 
offering  thy  gift  at  the  altar,  and  there  remem- 
berest  that  thy  brother  hath  aught  against  thee, 
leave  there  thy  gift  before  the  altar,  and  go  thy 
way,  first  be  reconciled  to  thy  brother  and  then 
come  and  offer  thy  gift."  I  wonder  how  many 
people  would  have  to  stay  away  from  church  next 
Sunday  if  they  were  true  to  this  word.  We  had 
better  stay  away,  and  get  right  with  our  brother 
before  we  come  to  the  altar.  "  If  ye  forgive  not 
men  their  trespasses,  neither  will  your  Father 
forgive  your  trespasses."  Loving  forgiveness  of 
my  brother  is  the  condition  upon  which  I,  a  child 
of  God,  may  ask  His  forgiveness. 

What  relation  has  all  this  to  the  underworld 


THE  PLANE  OF  PEAYEE  99 

of  evil?  When  we  forgive  those  who  have 
wronged  us,  we  have  gained  the  mightiest  victory 
possible  over  the  devil.  In  that  day  when  we 
trampled  on  our  pride  and  sacrificed  what  we 
speak  of  as  our  rights,  when  we  triumphed  over 
pride  and  lovingly  forgave  the  man  who  had 
sinned  against  us,  we  know  we  were  conscious  of 
God  as  we  had  never  been  before,  and  we  were 
conscious  of  victory  over  the  enemy  as  we  had 
never  been.  There  is  nothing  God  loves  and  the 
devil  hates  more  than  a  man  who  can  forgive. 

We  come  to  the  last  of  these  petitions.  "  And 
bring  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from 
the  evil  one."  "  Bring  us  not  into  temptation," 
that  is  the  language  of  the  cautious  heart,  of  the 
man  who  recognizes  how  terrible  an  experience 
temptation  is.  Bat  there  is  something  more  im- 
portant than  that  I  should  be  delivered  from 
temptation,  and  that  is  that  I  should  be  delivered 
from  evil.  If  I  can  only  be  delivered  from  evil 
by  passing  through  temptation,  then  that  I  be 
delivered  from  evil  is  the  supreme  matter.  In 
that  remarkable  passage  in  Luke  just  before  the 
Gethsemane  experience  and  again  just  after  it, 
the  Lord  said  to  His  disciples,  '^  Pray  that  ye  en- 
ter not  into  temptation."  He  was  passing  down 
to  temptation  then.  As  I  watch  Him  in  Geth- 
semane I  hear  the  echo  of  temptation,  "  Father, 
if  Thou  be  willing,  remove  this  cup  from  Me  ; 
nevertheless  not  My  will,  but  Thine  be  done." 
That  is  the  echo  of  temptation.  I  have  heard 
that  before.     I  heard  the  enemy  say  to  Him  long 


100  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

ago  in  the  wilderness,  "  There  are  the  Kingdoms 
of  the  world  which  you  have  come  to  possess. 
Your  pathway  to  them  is  one  of  suffering  and 
shame.  Fall  down  and  worship  me  and  I  will 
give  them  to  you.  Get  to  your  goal  by  a  short 
cut."  Here  is  the  old  method.  Be  very  afraid 
of  any  easy  method  to  anything.  I  hear  it  again 
later  on,  not  as  before  in  the  open  attack  of  the 
foe,  but  through  the  subtle  word  of  friendship. 
When  Jesus  at  Caesarea  Philippi  mentioned  the 
cross,  Peter  said,  "  Not  that.  Lord  I  That  be  far 
from  Thee.  Keys,  yes  ;  crowning,  yes ;  build- 
ing, yes ;  but  not  the  cross  !  "  Christ  said  to  him, 
"  Get  thee  behind  Me,  Satan  :  thou  art  a  stumbling- 
block  unto  Me ;  for  thou  mindest  not  the  things 
of  God,  but  the  things  of  men."  In  the  garden 
of  Gethsemane  the  devil  comes  no  longer  in  open 
attack,  no  longer  in  the  guise  of  a  friend,  but  in 
the  shrinking  of  His  own  soul.  "If  Thou  be 
willing,  remove  this  cup  from  Me."  Therein  is 
the  philosophy  of  this  petition,  "  Bring  us  not 
into  temptation."  We  are  to  be  afraid  of  temp- 
tation. We  are  not  to  be  foolhardy,  treating  it 
as  of  no  account.  We  are  to  shrink  in  its  pres- 
ence with  that  cautiousness  which  makes  for 
courage.  But  the  more  important  thing  is  that 
we  should  be  delivered  perfectly  from  evil. 
"Bring  us  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver  us 
from  evil."  That  is  to  be  my  prayer  every  day 
to  God  who  governs  in  hell  as  well  as  in  heaven. 
Kecognition  of  the  force  of  temptation  and  its 
subtlety  will  make  me  pray,  "  Bring  me  not  into 


THE  PLAITE  OF  PEAYEE  101 

temptation,"  but  the  deepest  passion  of  my  whole 
life  will  be — "  deliver  me  from  evil." 

What   relation  to  other  men  is  suggested  in 
this  last  petition?     Peter  writing  to  Christian 
people  said,   "Be  sober,  be  watchful:  your  ad- 
versary  the   devil,   as   a  roaring  lion,   walketh 
about,   seeking   whom   he  may  devour."     Why 
were  they  to  be  sober  and  watchful  ?     "  Know- 
ing that  the  same  sufferings  are  accomplished  in 
your  brethren  who  are  in  the  world."     Let  the 
light  of  that  fall  upon  this  petition.     When  we 
are  face  to  face  with  the  evil  one  and  with  temp- 
tation, we  are  not  fighting  a  lonely  battle,  we  are 
part  of  a  great  host.     Our  brethren  are  being 
tried  also.     If  we  win,  they  win  in  a  greater  meas- 
ure.    If  we  lose,  we  shall  halt  the  whole  battle 
and  retard  the  final  victory.     I  sometimes  think 
if  we  could  say  this  to  young  people  as  it  ought 
to  be  said  we  might  help  them.     Are  you  fight- 
ing against  temptation  ?    Kemember  it  is  not  a 
lonely  battle  you  are  fighting,  you  are  part  of  a 
great  host.     If  you  lose,  if  you  are  beaten,  if  the 
enemy  overcomes  you,  the  whole  army  of  God  is 
halted  in  its  onward  march.     If  you  win,  you 
hasten  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom.     The  same 
sufferings  are  being  accomplished  in  your  breth- 
ren.    Upon  this  stress  and  strife  of  the  saints  de- 
pends the  hastening  or  retarding  of  the  Day  of 
God.     So  we  are  to  pray  together  "  Bring  us  not 
into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil."     We 
fear  the  process,  but  there  is  a  deeper  passion  than 
the  passion  for  escape  from  testing,  it  is  the  pas- 


102  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

sion  for  deliverance  from  evil.  That  is  the  great 
and  final  thing. 

In  conclusion,  let  it  be  noted  that  He  who 
taught  the  prayer  has  in  its  second  half,  as  in  the 
first,  guaranteed  the  answer.  Am  I  to  pray  for 
the  bread  of  life  ?  He  bends  over  me  and  says, 
"  I  am  the  Bread  of  Life."  Am  I  to  pray  for 
sustenance  of  the  physical  life  ?  He  whispers  to 
me,  hear  the  tender  promise,  "  All  these  things 
shall  be  added  unto  you."  Am  I  to  pray  for  for- 
giveness  ?  Through  His  name  is  forgiveness 
preached.  But  how  am  I  going  to  forgive  the 
man  who  has  injured  me  ?  The  Spirit  of  Jesus 
is  the  spirit  of  forgiveness.  If  I  am  yielded  to 
Him  He  is  yielded  to  me.  If  I  give  my  whole 
life  to  Him  He  will  give  His  Avhole  life  to  me. 
If  I  have  Jesus  for  my  own  I  shall  be  able  to  for- 
give, so  that  He  will  answer  this  very  prayer  and 
make  possible  its  answer  in  the  high  court  of 
God's  own  judgment  hall.  As  to  temptation, 
"  He  was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  sin 
apart."  And  "  In  that  He  Himself  hath  suffered 
being  tempted.  He  is  able  to  succour  them  that 
are  tempted." 

So  in  this  pattern  prayer  He  shows  me  what  to 
pray  for  as  He  opens  before  my  astonished  vision 
the  whole  realm  of  prayer.  I  end  as  I  begin  by 
saying  that  if  we  can  pray  this  prayer  with  spir- 
itual intelligence  and  earnestness  we  pray  all 
prayer. 


THE  PRACTICE  OF  PRAYER 


"  And  when  ye  pray,  ye  shall  not  be  as  the  hypocrites :  for  they 
love  to  stand  and  pray  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  corners  of  the 
streets,  that  they  may  be  seen  of  men.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  They 
have  their  reward.  But  thou,  when  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thine 
inner  chamber,  and  having  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  which 
is  in  secret,  and  thy  Father  which  seeth  in  secret  shall  recompense 
thee.  And  in  praying  use  not  vain  repetitions,  as  the  Gentiles  do  ; 
for  they  think  that  they  shall  be  heard  for  their  much  speaking. 
Be  not  therefore  like  unto  them :  for  your  Father  knoweth  what 
things  ye  have  need  of,  before  ye  ask  Him.'''' — MATTHEW  6  :  5-8. 

' '  Again  I  say  unto  you,  that  if  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as 
touching  anything  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them  of 
My  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  For  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  My  name,  there  am  Jin  the  midst  ofthem.^' — MATTHEW 
18  :  19,  20. 


YII 

THE  PRACTICE  OF  PRAYER 

The  subjects  already  considered  are  all  pre- 
liniinary  to  and  necessary  for  the  present  one. 
God  has  made  prayer  possible  to  us  through 
Jesus.  We  can  pray  prevailingly  only  as  we  re- 
spond to  the  truths  which  create  the  possibility. 
The  sphere  of  prayer  includes  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  and  the  provision  of  all  the  need 
of  the  saints.  Thus  all  these  constitute  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  subject  of  the  practice  of  prayer. 
Prayer  is  only  possible  to  the  revealed  Father 
through  the  mediating  Son  by  the  inspiring 
Spirit.  Prayer  is  only  a  prevailing  power  as,  in 
the  life,  the  child  of  God  is  loyal  to  His  King- 
ship, satisfied  with  His  provision,  conformed  to 
His  likeness.  Moreover,  it  can  only  be  operative 
within  the  sphere  revealed  in  the  pattern  prayer. 

All  this  being  granted,  we  now  come  to  the 
more  technical  consideration  of  this  subject.  It 
is  necessary  both  in  order  to  brevity  and  clear- 
ness that  we  should  follow  a  process  of  elimina- 
tion. The  teaching  of  Jesus  is  so  full  of  instruc- 
tion concerning  prayer  that  we  do  not  propose  to 
attempt  even  a  survey  of  the  whole  field,  but  to 
confine  ourselves  to  the  words  dealing  with  the 
two  main  lines  of  responsibility  in  this  matter, 
105 


106  THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PEAYER 

those  namely,  of  the  practice  of  prayer  person- 
ally, and  the  practice  of  prayer  collectively. 

First,  as  to  the  former.  "  But  thou,  when  thou 
pray  est,  enter  into  thine  inner  chamber,  and  hav- 
ing shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father  v^hich  is  in 
secret,  and  thy  Father  which  seeth  in  secret  shall 
recompense  thee."  We  are  at  once  arrested  by 
the  "  but "  with  which  the  passage  opens.  It 
makes  us  conscious  of  a  background,  of  a  contrast 
which  flung  the  actual  words  into  clearer  relief. 
Immediately  preceding  Jesus  had  said,  "  Ye  shall 
not  be  as  the  hypocrites ;  for  they  love  to  stand 
and  pray  in  the  synagogues  and  in  the  corners  of 
the  streets,  that  they  may  be  seen  of  men."  JSToW 
it  is  perfectly  evident  that  our  Lord  did  not  mean 
to  say  it  was  wrong  to  stand  and  pray  in  the  syna- 
gogue or  at  the  corner  of  the  street.  That  against 
which  He  warned  His  disciples  was  the  praying 
which  had  as  its  deepest  desire  a  wish  to  be  seen 
of  men.  He  charged  them  to  beware  of  the  prayer 
which  obtrudes  itself  upon  human  notice.  Mark 
His  gentle  satire  in  this  respect,  "  Verily  I  say 
unto  you,  they  have  their  reward."  That  is  to 
say,  they  pray  to  be  seen  of  men,  they  are  seen 
of  men.  What  they  desire,  they  obtain.  This  is 
the  background.  We  are  interested  in  the  in- 
structions to  which  these  warnings  gave  rise. 
"When  thou  pray  est,  enter  into  thine  inner  cham- 
ber, and  having  shut  thy  door,  pray  to  thy  Father 
which  is  in  secret."  Thus  Christ  instructed  His 
disciples  that  in  the  life  of  each  one  of  them  there 
must  be  a  special  place,  a  special  time  and  a  special 


THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEK  107 

method,  whereby  in  quietness  and  loneliness, 
every  third  person  being  excluded,  each  one 
should  pray. 

Then  as  to  the  latter,  "  If  two  of  you  shall  agree 
on  earth  as  touching  anything  they  shall  ask,  it 
shall  be  done  for  them  of  My  Father  which  is  in 
heaven.     For  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of 
them."     As  the  first  passage  insisted  upon  loneli- 
ness, this  provides  for  fellowship  in  prayer.     It 
declares  the  conditions  of  the  true  prayer-meeting. 
The  promise  is  indeed  a  spacious  one.    "  If  two  of 
you  shall  agree  on  earth  as  touching  anything  that 
they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for  them."    It  is  a 
somewhat  curious  thing  that  this  promise  is  so 
perpetually  misquoted  by  the   addition   of  the 
words,  "  concerning  My  Kingdom."     It  may  be 
said  that  this,  of  course,  was  what  our  Lord  meant 
us  to  understand.     I  unhesitatingly  reply  that  we 
have  no  right  to  imagine  that  He  meant  anything 
other  than  He  said.     To  introduce  these  words 
is  to  put  a  limit  upon  prayer  which  He  did  not 
put.     If  it  be  objected  that  this  is  a  dangerous 
doctrine,  I  reply  that  Christ  clearly  marked  the 
limits  of  such  agreement  and  such  asking  in  the 
words,  "  For  where  two  or  three  are  gathered  to- 
gether in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of 
them."     The  promise  is  not  made  to  two  or  three 
persons  who  meet  together,  and  ask  simply  upon 
the  basis  of  their  own  desire.    "Jesus  in  the  midst" 
means  Jesus  enthroned,  obeyed,  consulted.    Where 
He  is  enthroned,  obeyed,  consulted,  the   Spirit 


108  THE  PEACTICE  OP  PRAYEE 

creates  desire,  and  prayer  being  in  harmony 
witti  the  will  of  God,  the  answer  is  assured.  We 
must  neither  put  false  limitations  upon  this  word 
of  the  Master,  nor  must  we  imagine  that  there 
are  no  limitations.  According  to  Him,  the  limit 
is  not  upon  the  things  for  which  we  may  ask,  but 
upon  our  condition  and  the  Spirit  in  which  we  ask. 
Two  or  three  of  us  may  agree  as  to  our  desire  for 
certain  things,  and  may  ask  for  them,  and  never 
receive  them.  The  prayer-meeting  must  not  be 
based  upon  desire,  but  upon  relationship  to  Christ. 

1  If  two  or  three  of  us  are  gathered  together  in  His 
/  name,  under  the  dominion  of  His  life,  inspired  by 
\  His  Spirit,  and  if  in  the  hearts  of  those  thus  gath- 

j  ered  there  is  created  a  common  desire,  then  they 

\  may  ask  and  be  assured  of  the  answer. 

*  These  then  are  the  two  words  of  Jesus  about 
prayer  which  reveal  the  broad  lines  of  its  practice. 
Firstly  that  we  enter  into  an  inner  chamber,  shut 
the  door,  and  pray  alone ;  and  secondly,  that  we 
gather  together  two  or  three  in  His  name  and  pray. 
One  man  may  pray  alone,  indeed  he  must  do  so 
shutting  out  every  other  person  ;  but  that  does  not 
exhaust  the  practice  of  prayer.  There  must  be 
the  prayer-meeting.  It  is  not  necessarily  a  large 
gathering.  The  Master  names  the  smallest  num- 
ber that  can  constitute  a  meeting — two.  There 
cannot  be  a  meeting  of  one.  Yet  the  larger  num- 
ber is  not  necessarily  wrong.  The  indefiniteness 
of  His  phrase  "  two  or  three  "  includes  the  possi- 
bility of  the  larger  gathering.  That  which  creates 
the  true  prayer-meeting  is  the  inspiration  of  saints 


THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE  109 

in  communion  with  each  other,  because  baptized 
b}^  the  Spirit  into  living  communion  with  Christ. 
Now  for  the  most  practical  of  words  concerning 
each  of  these  methods.  As  to  the  first,  I  desire  to 
insist  upon  the  necessity  for  the  formation  of  very 
definite  habits.  The  words  of  the  Master  could 
not  be  more  emphatic  than  they  are  as  to  the 
necessity  for  separation,  seclusion,  and  secrecy. 
An  inner  chamber  and  a  shut  door  certainly  mean 
that  there  must  be  in  the  life  of  every  man  or 
woman  or  child  a  place  for  retirement,  a  time  for 
seclusion,  an  exercise  of  this  high  and  holy  privi- 
lege in  absolute  loneliness,  when  husband  or  wife, 
father  or  mother,  brother  or  sister,  son  or  daugh- 
ter, is  excluded.  In  all  our  busy  life  nothing  is  of 
more  importance  than  that  we  should  have  some 
place  peculiarly  consecrated  to  prayer.  The  soul 
needs  a  Bethel.  It  may  not  be  a  place  retained 
exclusively  for  prayer,  but  it  should  be  a  place  to 
which  at  set  times  we  may  go  and  know  that  we 
shall  be  free  from  intrusion.  For  every  minister 
of  the  Gospel  this  Bethel  ought  to  be  his  study. 
I  know  how  constantly  we  think  of  the  study  as 
the  workroom,  and  rightly  so.  Woe  be  to  the 
preacher  of  the  Word  who  is  not  a  workman. 
But  the  study  ought  to  be  at  times  the  place 
where  we  may  look  into  the  face  of  God  alone 
and  hold  personal  communion  with  Him.  This 
may  sound  like  a  plea  for  the  private  oratory  of 
the  Eoman  Catholic,  and  so  it  is  in  all  its  deepest 
spiritual  intention.  For  the  material  trappings 
of  crucifix,  picture,  or  candle  I  care  nothing,  but 


110  THE  PKAOTICE  OF  PEAYER 

for  the  spiritual  intention  of  lonely  communion 
with  God  in  some  set  place,  I  care  increasingly. 
There  is  far  more  than  seems  in  the  place  set 
apart.  Those  of  us  who  preach  the  Word  surely 
know  what  it  is  to  feel  the  ease  of  preaching  in 
the  place  with  which  one  is  perfectly  familiar. 
Familiarity  enables  f orgetf ulness  of  surroundings. 
The  "  where  "  matters  little.  The  fact  that  there 
is  a  place  is  of  great  importance.  To  object  to  the 
idea  of  locality  is  to  imagine  there  was  no  mean- 
ing in  the  words  of  Jesus  when  He  spoke  of  an 
"  inner  chamber "  and  a  "  shut  door."  To  the 
merchant,  it  may  be  his  private  office,  locked  at  a 
certain  time  for  loneliness  with  God.  To  the 
mother  it  may  be  the  quiet  of  her  own  room  from 
w^hich  for  a  little  she  is  able  to  exclude  all  those 
who  serve  under  her  in  the  maintenance  of  home. 
It  seems  to  me  that  if  the  watchers  in  the  heav- 
enly places  observe  the  places  of  the  sons  of  men 
amid  earth's  conflict,  those  in  which  they  are 
most  interested  are  the  secret  places  where  the 
saints  hold  converse  with  God.  Until  we  find 
some  place  of  habitual  loneliness  made  sacred, 
not  by  material  accessories,  but  by  spiritual  ac- 
cess, we  are  not  as  strong  as  we  might  be,  and  we 
have  not  formed  the  mightiest  habit  in  the  life  of 
prayer.  Then  it  is  of  equal  importance  that  there 
should  be  a  special  time  for  prayer.  I  am  perfectly 
well  aware  of  the  answer  that  comes  from  thou- 
sands of  toilers  to-day.  This  is  a  busy  age.  Of 
that  there  can  be  no  denial,  but  if  the  age  is  too 
busy  to  pray,  so  much  the  worse  for  the  age;  or 


THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER  111 

rather  if  in  the  age  we  are  too  busy  to  pray,  so 
much  the  worse  for  our  business.  As  to  the  time 
of  prayer  there  can  be  no  little  doubt  that  for 
those  who  are  able  the  "  morning  watch  "  is  the 
finest.  Yet  I  would  urge  none  to  be  slave  of 
the  habit  of  another.  If  a  proper  regard  for 
physical  conditions  makes  it  necessary  for  some 
over- wrought  daughter  of  the  King  to  rest  in  the 
morning  hour,  let  her  remember  that  she  is  not 
under  law,  but  under  grace.  Then  let  there  be 
no  escape  from  the  importance  of  time  by  declar- 
ing the  brevity  of  the  day,  and  the  multiplication 
of  positive  duties.  In  fellowship  with  God  the 
terms  long  or  short  ought  to  be  cancelled.  ^  Five 
minutes  with  Him  in  which  the  soul  is  touched 
by  the  forces  of  eternity  will  mean  a  day  full  of 
spiritual  vigour.  God  can  do  much  in  five  minutes 
of  man's  time  if  no  more  can  honestly  be  spared. 
He  can  do  nothing  in  five  minutes  for  the  man 
who  should  give  Him  sixty,  who  but  is  slothful. 
Those  who  know  the  value  of  lonely  fellowship 
with  God,  at  the  beginning  of  the  day,  know  also  ; 
how  hot  and  restless  is  the  day  from  which  that  j 
time  of  communion  has  been  absent.  Again  I  say,  ( 
cultivate  that  method  of  prayer  which  is  most 
helpful,  whether  it  be  that  of  speaking  aloud  in 
loneliness,  or  of  communing  in  stillness  of  heart 
and  silence,  whether  standing  or  kneeling  or  sit- 
ting. No  special  attitude  is  insisted  upon  as 
necessary  in  the  Word  of  God.  The  matter  of 
supreme  importance  is  that  we  discover  the 
method  of  prayer  which  helps  us  most  actually 


112  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEATER 

to  realize  the  presence  of  God  and  hold  com- 
munion with  Him.  The  place,  the  time,  the 
method,  are  matters  concerning  which  there  must 
be  individual  choice  and  decision.  The  matter  of 
supreme  importance  is  the  cultivation  of  the  habit 
of  prayer.  I  do  not  use  the  word  habit  carelessly. 
Habits  need  to  be  formed  whether  they  are  good 
or  evil.  With  regard  to  prayer  that  which  is  at 
first  perhaps  somewhat  trying  and  difficult,  be- 
comes so  much  a  part  of  the  life  as  to  be  not 
second  nature,  but  first  nature.  In  all  these  mat- 
ters it  is  important  to  distinguish  between  the  es- 
sentials and  the  accidentals. 

It  would  be  disastrous  if  any  should  imagine 
that  these  set  times  exhausted  the  practice  of 
personal  prayer.  Our  Lord  declared  that  "  Men 
ought  always  to  pray,  and  not  to  faint,"  and  that 
is  a  very  profound  word.  It  is  evident  that  His 
conception  of  life  is  that  if  men  pray  they  will 
not  faint,  and  conversely,  if  men  do  not  pray 
then  will  they  faint.  This  word  indicates  the 
fact  that  Jesus  had  a  profound  consciousness  of 
the  pressure  and  strain  of  life.  He  did  not  think 
it  was  a  soothing  softness  through  which  men 
glide.  To  Him  life  was  indeed  simple,  but  also 
strenuous.  He  knew  that  men  would  be  in  dan- 
ger of  fainting  underneath  the  burden  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  battle.  He  knew  also  a  power 
which  would  prevent  their  fainting.  "  Men 
ought  always  to  pray,  and  not  to  faint."  No 
man  will  pray  always  who  neglects  the  forma- 
tion of  the  habit  of  regular  prayer.     The  dis- 


THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PEAYEE  113 

ciple  who  regularly  observes  a  place  and  time 
and  method  will  gradually  find  the  habit  learned 
in  the  secret  place  is  binding  also  through  all  the 
public  life.  A  confirmed  habit  of  regular  prayer 
will  create  regularity  and  constancy  amidst  all 
irregularities  of  time  and  place  and  method. 
Prayer  in  the  secret  place  will  create  a  spirit  ^ 
which  will  obtain  in  all  public  places.  Grad- 
ually thoughts  will  become  prayers,  thoughts  of 
absent  friends  will  take  wings  and  move  up- 
wards. Fellowship  with  God  as  an  activity  will  ; 
issue  in  "fellowship  with  God  as  an  attitude. 
When  this~isrsb,  anywhere,  and  at  any  moment, 
and  in  any  method  the  spirit  will  speak  its  need 
in  the  listening  ear  of  God.  Our  fathers  used  to 
speak  of  and  practice  ejaculatory  prayer.  It 
would  be  a  great  gain  to  all  of  us  if  we  could 
learn  again  the  method  and  practice  it.  It  is  a 
great  mistake  to  imagine  that  in  the  midst  of 
London's  busy  traffic  one  has  to  wait  for  the  ap- 
pointed place  and  hour  and  method.  It  is  a 
great  word  in  the  "  letter  to  the  Hebrews  "  which 
declares  that  we  "  may  find  grace  to  help  us  in 
time  of  need."  I  have  always  felt  that  I  should 
like  to  discover  some  idiom  of  my  own  language 
which  would  gather  the  thought  of  the  Greek 
phrase,  and  I  am  not  sure  but  that  it  is  perfectly 
done  by  saying  that  the  message  declares  we  may 
find  grace  to  help  us  "  in  the  nick  of  time."  The 
consciousness  of  this,  however,  can  only  be 
created  as  we  are  familiar  with  the  secret  place 
as  a  result  of  the  set  time  and  place  and  method. 


114  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEAYER 

So  far  we  have  dealt  with  only  the  practice  of 
prayer  in  the  individual  life,  with  the  inner 
chamber  and  the  shut  door,  the  special  place,  the 
special  time  and  the  special  method,  and  with 
prayer  flung  out  in  sighs  and  sentences  in  the 
rush  of  every-day  activity,  in  the  abiding  con- 
sciousness of  God's  attention  and  God's  answer. 
^  Turning  to  the  habit  of  collective  prayer, 
there  is  very  much  that  might  be  said  about  the 
prayer-meeting.  The  prayer-meeting  is  a  meet- 
ing for  prayer.  That  is  so  obvious  a  statement 
as  to  appear  unnecessary.  Yet  1  do  not  hesitate 
to  affirm  that  there  is  nothing  the  Church  needs 
more  at  the  present  hour  than  to  understand 
what  a  real  prayer-meeting  is.  As  we  have 
already  briefly  said,  the  perfect  ideal  is  set  forth 
in  the  Master's  words,  "  Where  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  in  My  name,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them."  He  was  primarily  declaring 
the  ground  upon  which  He  had  made  His  promise 
"  If  two  of  you  shall  agree  on  earth  as  touching 
anything  that  they  shall  ask,  it  shall  be  done  for 
them."  I  am  perfectly  aware  that  these  sacred 
words  of  our  Lord  open  before  our  vision  vaster 
reaches,  and  have  more  spacious  meanings,  but  at 
the  present  time  we  consider  them  only  in  the 
first  application  which  our  Lord  made  of  them. 
The  first  necessity  then  for  the  prayer-meeting  is 
that  those  constituting  it  should  be  gathered  "  in 
His  name."  Two  souls  so  gathered,  each  under 
His  dominion — and  the  place  is  of  no  moment. 
The  great  word  "  where  "  is  magnificent  in  its 


THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER  115 

breadth  ;  no  longer  in  Jerusalem,  no  longer  at 
the  temple,  no  longer  in  a  mountain  set  apart,  no 
longer  in  a  church  or  meeting-house  or  any  other 
special  place  only,  but  "  where,"  in  the  home,  in 
the  field,  upon  the  sea,  on  the  mountain,  in  the 
great  cathedral,  in  the  mission-hall,  they  are 
'*  gathered  in  the  Name."  "We  do  not  catch  the 
thought  if  we  say  "  two  or  three  met  together," 
"  assembled  together,"  no,  they  must  be  "  gath- 
ered," and  the  great  and  only  "  Gatherer  "  is  the 
Lord  Himself,  acting  to-day  through  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Then  they  must  be  gathered  "  in  His 
name,"  which  does  not  merely  mean  that  they 
must  be  called  Christians,  but  they  must  be 
sharers  of  His  nature,  those  who  are  living  His 
life,  under  the  impulse  of  His  love,  in  the  illu- 
mination of  His  light.  When  such  souls  are  so 
gathered  you  have  the  prayer-meeting.  A  meet- 
ing for  prayer  is  a  meeting  of  two  or  three  units, 
hundreds,  thousands,  gathered,  as  we  have  said, 
and  who  give  themselves  to  prayer.  I  may  be 
asked  if  I  would  discountenance  singing  and  the 
exposition  of  scripture  in  prayer-meetings.  "Well, 
I  should  certainly  have  no  singing  in  a  prayer- 
meeting,  save  the  singing  of  some  of  the  great 
prayer  hymns  of  the  Church,  in  which  she  is 
rich.  I  would  have  no  other  reading  of  the 
Word  of  God  save  perhaps  some  passage  indicat- 
ing our  responsibility  in  or  re-stating  the  charter 
of  prayer.  In  the  true  prayer-meeting  there 
should  be  no  "  waiting."  By  that  I  do  not  mean 
that  it  is  necessary  always  for  some  one  to  be  en- 


116  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

gaging  in  audible  prayer,  but  rather  that  the  ces- 
sation of  the  sounding  of  a  human  voice  ought 
not  to  mean  the  cessation  of  prayer.  During  all 
the  silent  pauses,  every  individual  should  be  in 
silent  communion  with  God,  bearing  up  quietly 
some  petitions  which  perhaps  have  already  been 
decided  upon  or  named  in  the  assembly.  Yet  on 
the  other  hand  there  should  be  no  "  waiting  "  in 
the  sense  of  refusing  to  lead  in  audible  prayer 
when  the  Spirit  guides.  Elder  waits  for  younger, 
younger  waits  for  elder ;  the  Spirit  waits  for  all, 
and  is  grieved  and  hindered.  In  the  true  prayer- 
meeting  there  should  be  preeminently  the  con- 
sciousness that  the  saints  are  gathered  not  only 
"  in  His  name,"  but  because  in  His  name,  in  His 
real  presence.  Where  that  is  so  there  will  be 
"  waiting  "  only  for  direction  by  the  Spirit.  It 
may  be  objected  that  this  kind  of  prayer-meeting 
would  not  be  popular,  yet  surely  it  has  not  come 
to  this  that  any  Christian  soul  should  imagine 
popularity  to  be  the  standard  of  success  in  the 
Church  of  God. 

This  habit  of  collective  prayer  should  not  be 
confined  to  meetings  merely  in  connection  with 
the  Church,  that  is,  on  the  Church  premises.  It 
may  be  cultivated  in  the  home-life,  and  indeed 
everywhere.  As  an  illustration,  let  me  suggest 
that  Christian  women  should  turn  their  faculty 
for  social  entertainment  in  this  direction.  Why 
not  have  ''  At  Homes  "  for  prayer  ?  At  least, 
they  would  have  the  advantage  of  definiteness, 
and  in  that  very  minor  sense  would  be  infinitely 


THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PEAYEE  117 

superior  to  many  of  the  unhallowed  crushes  which 
characterize  so-called  social  life  to-day.  Why  not 
issue  invitations  upon  this  basis,  that  your  friends 
should  meet  in  your  home  to  spend  an  afternoon 
in  prayer.  If  the  so-called  friends  would  not 
accept  the  invitation,  then  surely  you,  as  a 
Christian,  are  better  without  such  friends.  It  is 
the  Church's  friendship  with  people  who  do  not 
want  to  pray,  which  blights  the  Church  and 
blights  the  world.  The  people  in  the  ungodly 
suburb  where  your  home  is,  may  be,  according  to 
the  canons  of  a  worldly  hour,  preeminently  re- 
spectable, but  if  they  are  not  prepared  to  come  to 
your  home  to  talk  with  Christ,  they  are  injuring 
you  and  you  are  injuring  them  by  your  continued 
friendship.  Not  only  in  the  home  life,  but  in  all 
social  intercourse,  the  saints  should  come  together 
more  for  prayer.  I  go  back  in  memory  to  the 
days  when,  as  a  lad  at  school  in  Cheltenham,  I 
formed  a  friendship  with  one  David  Smith,  a 
colporteur.  His  memory  is  fragrant  still.  On 
half-holidays  I  would  accompany  him  to  some  of 
the  villages  lying  among  the  Cotswold  Hills.  It 
was  our  custom,  at  his  suggestion,  to  start  half 
an  hour  earlier  than  was  necessary  to  bring  us  in 
time  for  the  meetings  in  order  that  on  the  way 
we  might  make  a  pause  for  prayer  together. 
Some  of  the  most  hallowed  memories  of  my  heart 
to-day  are  of  those  meetings  of  two,  one  a  young 
man  loving  his  Lord,  and  the  other  a  boy,  open- 
ing his  eyes  towards  the  possibility  of  a  life-work, 
pausing' at  some  stile  amid  the  fields  and  agree- 


118  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

ing  together  to  ask,  asking  and  obtaining  answers. 
The  glory  of  such  meetings  lies  in  the  utter  ab- 
sence from  them  of  constraint  or  compulsion  of 
any  kind  other  than  that  of  the  presiding  Lord. 
In  such  a  meeting  one  may  pray  as  many  times 
as  the  heart  prompts.  One  may  stop  without 
elaborate  finish,  and  commence  again  because  in 
another's  prayer  a  new  desire  has  been  born  in 
one's  own  heart.  I  think  we  cannot  tell  how 
much  it  would  mean  to  the  strength  of  the 
Church  if  the  saints  of  God  cultivated  the  habit 
of  fellowship  in  prayer  in  small  groups. 

There  are  three  notes  of  prevailing  prayer  of 
which  I  want  to  speak  briefly.  First,  definite- 
ness,  secondly,  importunity,  and  thirdly,  submis: 
sion.  There  is  nothing  we  need  more  in  personal 
prayer  than  to  know  what  we  want,  and  ask  for 
it.  It  is  possible  to  waste  the  great  opportunity 
of  prayer  by  indefiniteness.  We  may  generalize 
prayer  until  we  vapourize  it,  and  there  is  no  virtue 
left  in  it.  It  is  a  question  whether  ministers  can 
serve  their  churches  in  any  better  way  than  by 
the  simple  habit  of  praying  individually  for  the 
flock  of  God  committed  to  their  care.  During 
the  two  years  of  my  ministry  at  Westminster  I 
have  passed  from  North  to  South  and  East  to 
West  of  my  own  country,  and  have  twice  visited 
the  States.  I  have  gone  nowhere  during  that 
period  without  discovering  the  influence  resulting 
from  the  ministry  of  the  man  of  God  who  built 
that  place,  and  more  than  thirty  years  ago  passed 
on  into  the  light  of  the  Father's  home.     The 


THE  PEAOTICE  OF  PEAYEE  119 

question  arises  as  to  wliat  in  the  life  and  work  of 
Samuel  Martin  created  the  influence  which  so 
long  abides.  He  was  an  eloquent  preacher,  truly, 
and  a  man  of  saintly  character,  but  perhaps  the 
greatest  thing  about  him  was  the  fact  of  his 
definite  praying.  It  was  his  habit  to  go  into  that 
great  building  when  the  doors  were  shut,  and  to 
pass  from  pew  to  pew  praying  for  the  people  who 
occupied  them  at  the  regular  services  of  the 
church.  The  same  truth  applies  to  our  work  in 
the  Sunday-school.  There  is  no  more  sacred, 
holy,  or  beautiful  work  than  that  of  the  teacher, 
no  work  that  needs  clearer  vision  or  more  tender 
heart.  Our  teachers  will  find  great  help  from 
the  practice  of  definite  prayer  for  their  children. 
Let  them  make  the  register  of  the  scholar's  names 
a  prayer-book  in  the  highest  sense  of  that  word. 
As  every  child  in  turn  is  born  upon  the  heart, 
there  will  be  created  a  new  power  for  influencing 
those  thus  prayed  for  towards  Christ  Himself. 

All  this  is  equally  true  of  the  collective  praying 
of  the  saints.  Prayer-meetings  have  too  often 
been  killed  by  aimless,  rudderless,  anchorless 
wanderings  of  such  as  seem  to  have  no  haven.  It 
would  be  a  habit  of  great  helpfulness  if  before 
prayer  the  Church  decided  what  it  was  about  to 
pray  for.  It  is  impossible  to  pray  about  every- 
thing in  one  prayer-meeting.  One  day  in  a  York- 
shire prayer-meeting  there  came  a  stranger  who 
did  what  many  men  are  in  the  habit  of  doing — 
God  forgive  them — he  made  a  prayer.  When  he 
had  been  talking  twenty  minutes,  and  no  living 


120  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

man  ought  to  pray  in  a  prayer-meeting  above 
five,  and  had  been  giving  the  Almighty  in- 
formation of  which  He  had  been  in  possession 
long  before  the  man  was  born,  at  last  he  said, 
"  And  now,  O  Lord  God,  what  more  shall  we  say 
unto  Thee  ?  "  An  old  man  who  knew  how  to 
pray  audibly  replied  "  Call  Him  '  Feyther,'  mon, 
and  ax  for  summat."  This  principle  of  definite- 
ness  is  what  we  supremely  need  in  individual  and 
collective  praying.  Jesus  did  not  say,  "  If  you 
will  give  God  information  for  twenty  minutes  in 
elegant  language  you  may  derive  some  benefit 
therefrom."  He  said,  "  Ask,  and  receive  "  ;  "  seek, 
and  find  " ;  "knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened." 

The  next  note  of  prevailing  prayer  is  that  of 
importunity.  In  the  eleventh  and  eighteenth 
chapters  of  Luke  are  two  parables  which  show 
this  necessity.  The  one  is  a  picture  of  a  man  who 
obtained  bread  by  knocking  and  by  continuing 
to  knock.  The  other  is  a  picture  of  a  woman  who 
got  redress  for  her  wrongs  by  worrying  a  judge. 
Now  Jesus  was  not  teaching  that  God  has  to  be 
begged  in  order  to  obtain  His  favour,  not  that 
He  needs  to  be  worried  in  order  to  persuade  Him 
to  do  right,  but  rather  that  it  is  necessary  for  our 
sakes  that  there  should  be  importunity.  The  man 
who  asks  and  forgets  does  not  really  feel  his  need, 
and  therefore  will  not  receive.  The  man  who 
knocks  and  runs  away  will  never  receive  the 
beneficence  of  the  One  who  alone  can  open  the 
door.  The  men  who  know  the  real  secret  of 
prayer  know|  the  meaning  also  of  importunity. 


THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER  121 

Epaphras  agonized  in  prayer.     There  must  be  defi- 
niteness,  and  then  importunity. 

But  importunity  must  never  degenerate  into 
self-will.  There  must  also  be  submission.  Sub- 
mission as  to  the  form  in  which  the  answer  shall 
come ;  submission  as  to  the  method  of  the  answer ; 
submission  as  to  the  time  of  the  answer.  It  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  we  cannot  see  the  end  from 
the  beginning,  cannot  understand  the  ultimate 
meaning  of  our  own  petitions,  but  we  are  praying 
to  One  who  does  see  the  end  from  the  beginning, 
and  who  is  perfectly  conscious  of  the  issue  of  our 
petitions.  It  may  be  that  the  things  which  to  us 
seem  most  necessary  would  only  prove  a  hindrance 
if  they  were  granted.  The  best  answer  to  such 
prayer  is  ever  the  kindly  love  which  refuses. 
Therefore  there  must  be  submission  in  all  pre- 
vailing prayer. 

Then  as  to  the  subjects  of  prayer.  We  are 
warranted  in  praying  for  anything  which  is 
within  the  sphere  of  the  will  of  God.  That  state- 
ment is  inclusive  and  exclusive.  It  includes 
everything  which  in  itself  is  right,  and  which 
forms  part  of  my  life  and  service  according  to  the 
Divine  plan.  It  excludes  everything  which  is 
wholly  self-centred.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
prayer  in  the  Spirit  will  mean  the  cessation  of  a 
great  many  petitions.  Many  things  after  which 
we  have  most  strenuously  striven  even  in  prayer, 
we  shall  be  able  to  strive  after  no  more  if  our  life 
is  responsive  to  all  the  facts  which  make  prayer 
possible.     Petitions  will  be  fewer,  but  they  will 


122  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE 

be  more  powerful.  One  illustration  of  exclusion 
may  be  valuable,  and  yet  in  giving  it  let  me  first 
say  that  I  am  speaking  from  ray  own  experience 
only.  There  may  be  no  application  of  this  illus- 
tration to  any  other.  We  must  all  be  perfectly 
persuaded  in  our  own  minds  on  such  things. 
If  we  have  faith  we  must  have  it  to  ourselves  be- 
fore God.  But  to  return.  I  cannot  pray  as  I 
once  did  about  the  weather.  Who  am  I  that  I 
should  ask  that  any  given  day  in  the  calendar 
should  be  fine  ?  I  am  always  profoundly  thank- 
ful that  although  our  friends  across  the  ocean  are 
able  to  send  us  w^eather  forecasts,  they  do  not 
send  us  weather.  God  still  holds  the  government 
in  His  own  hand.  The  mother  of  a  friend  of 
mine,  a  Baptist  minister,  told  me  why  she  had 
ceased  praying  concerning  this  matter.  For  many 
years  at  family  worship  she  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  asking  for  a  fine  day  for  the  Sunday-school 
outing.  When  her  boy  was  about  ten  years  of 
age  he  came  to  her  on  one  such  morning  and  said, 
"  Mother,  I  don't  think  you  ought  to  ask  God  for 
a  fine  day.  Perhaps  it  would  be  a  great  deal  bet- 
ter for  the  farmers  to  have  it  wet,  and  why 
should  it  be  fine  just  for  our  outing  ?  "  She  re- 
plied that  of  course  her  petition  was  that  if  it 
should  be  God's  will  it  might  be  fine.  The  boy 
then  said,  ''  Why  don't  you  ask  God  to  help  you 
to  choose  one  of  His  fine  days  ?  "  To  me  that  is 
the  whole  philosophy  of  praying.  It  is  not  an 
arrangement  by  which  we  obtain  things  which 
we  personally  desire.     It  is  rather  the  provision 


THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYEE  123 

through  which  we  seek  to  be  brought  into  con- 
formity with  the  will  of  God,  and  to  obtain  only 
the  light  which  enables  us  to  walk  therein.  Not 
that  it  is  wrong  to  ask  definitely,  but  it  is  always 
wise  to  carefully  weigh  our  petitions  as  to 
whether  or  not  they  really  recognize  His  sover- 
eignty and  wisdom.  Charles  Kingsley  refused 
on  one  occasion  to  use  the  Archbishop's  prayer 
for  the  cessation  of  rain.  He  recognized  that  the 
long  downpour  was  sorely  needed  for  sanitary 
conditions. 

There  are  particular  things  about  which  we 
ought  to  pray,  for  which  we  are  commanded  to 
pray  ;  for  all  the  saints,  for  the  Word  of  God,  for 
the  Christian  ministry,  for  all  souls. 

Jesus  prayed  for  all  the  saints  in  that  great  in- 
tercessory prayer.  Paul  prayed  for  these  as  the 
letters  of  the  imprisonment  testify.  What  a  heal 
ing  of  our  denominational  differences  would  re- 
sult, if  instead  of  perpetually  discussing  those 
differences  we  gave  ourselves  to  prayer  for  each 
other. 

Then  we  should  pray  for  the  Word  of  God, 
that  it  "  may  run  and  be  glorified."  Again  how 
much  more  powerful  such  action  would  be  than 
that  of  debating  our  differing  interpretations  of 
its  meaning.  Then  for  the  ministry.  If  the 
Church  would  pray  for  the  ministry  instead  of 
criticising  it,  there  would  be  wonderful  results. 
In  this  connection  I  should  like  to  urge  upon  the 
Church  that  its  special  duty  according  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Lord  is  to  pray  that  God  will 


124  THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PEAYEE 

thrust  out  into  His  harvest  His  own  labourers. 
^  I  am  sometimes  asked  to  appeal  to  young  men  to 
enter  the  ministry  because  there  is  a  need  of 
them.  My  answer  is  that  no  man  can  choose  to 
become  a  minister — he  must  be  sent.  Therefore 
we  should  pray  as  our  Master  taught  us  that  the 
Lord  Himself  will  send.  In  this  connection  also, 
it  may  be  well  to  urge  the  importance  of  pray- 
ing for  those  who  have  the  sacred  and  awful 
charge  of  training  men  for  the  exercise  of  their 
ministry.  Then  moreover,  we  are  to  pray  for 
the  men  who  are  exercising  the  holy  calling.  I 
once  heard  Dr.  Berry  give  a  charge  to  a  young 
minister.  In  the  course  of  that  charge  he  said  to 
the  people,  "  You  will  get  out  of  my  young 
brother  what  you  expect,  and  you  will  expect 
what  you  pray  for."  Then  he  used  this  homely 
but  forceful  illustration.  Said  he,  "We  were 
giving  soup  away  lately  to  our  poor  people,  and 
had  issued  general  instructions  that  the  lads  who 
came  to  fetch  the  soup  should  bring  with  them  a 
vessel  that  should  hold  about  two  quarts.  I  was 
at  the  soup-kitchen  one  day,  and  saw  a  boy  about 
ten  years  of  age,  ragged  and  dirty,  but  with  eyes 
that  flashed  fire,  going  into  the  soup-kitchen  car- 
rying a  vessel  that  would  hold  at  least  three  gal- 
lons. We  could  not  for  shame  put  two  quarts 
into  that."  "JSTow,"  said  Dr.  Berry,  "  when  you 
come  to  hear  your  minister,  do  not  bring  a  two- 
quart  measure  !  "  Oh,  what  it  is  to  preach  to  men 
and  women  who  have  been  praying  for  you. 
Then  we  are  charged  to  pray  for  all  souls,  the 


THE  PEACTIOE  OF  PRAYEE  125 

sorrowing,  the  sighing,  the  sad,  the  sinning. 
Moreover  there  is  no  small  matter  about  which 
we  have  not  the  right  to  pray.  Anna  Shipton 
wrote  a  little  book  called  Tell  Jesus,  being  the 
memorials  of  Emily  Goss.  It  is  the  story  of  a 
girl  who  told  Jesus  everything,  from  the  trouble 
of  a  tangle  in  a  skein  of  wool  to  the  joys  of  the 
passing  hours. 

From  this  sacred  service  of  prayer  no  saint  of 
God  is  excluded  ;  the  youngest  and  the  weakest 
can  pray.  There  are  some  of  us  who  are  ex- 
cluded from  certain  lines  of  service  because  of 
the  pressure  of  life  upon  us,  but  no  one  of  us  is 
excluded  from  prayer.  There  are  saints  of  God 
who  for  long,  long  years  have  been  shut  off  from 
all  the  activities  of  the  Church,  and  even  from  the 
worship  of  the  sanctuary,  but  who,  nevertheless, 
have  continued  to  labour  together  in  prayer  with 
the  whole  fellowship  of  the  saints.  There  comes 
to  me  the  thought  of  one  woman  who,  to  my 
knowledge,  since  18Y2  in  this  great  babel  of  Lon- 
don, has  been  in  perpetual  pain,  and  yet  in  con- 
stant prayer.  She  is  to-day  a  woman  twisted 
and  distorted  by  suffering,  and  yet  exhaling  the 
calm  and  strength  of  the  secret  of  the  Most 
High.  In  18Y2  she  was  a  bed-ridden  girl  in  the 
ISTorth  of  London,  praying  that  God  would  send 
revival  to  the  Church  of  which  she  was  a  mem- 
ber, and  yet  into  which  even  then  she  never  came. 
She  had  read  in  the  little  paper  called  Bevival, 
which  subsequently  became  The  Christian,  the 
story  of  a  work  being  done  in  Chicago  among 


126  THE  PEACTICE  OF.PEAYEE 

ragged  children  by  a  man  called  Moody.  She 
had  never  seen  Moody,  but  putting  that  little  pa- 
per under  her  pillow,  she  began  to  pray,  "  O  Lord, 
send  this  man  to  our  Church.'*  She  had  no  means 
of  reaching  him  or  communicating  with  him. 
He  had  already  visited  the  country  in  1867,  and 
in  1872  he  started  again  for  a  short  trip  with  no 
intention  of  doing  any  work.  Mr.  Lessey,  how- 
ever, the  pastor  of  the  church  of  which  this  girl 
was  a  member,  met  him  and  asked  him  to  preach 
for  him.  He  consented,  and  after  the  evening 
service  he  asked  those  who  would  decide  for 
Christ  to  rise,  and  hundreds  did  so.  He  was  sur- 
prised, and  imagined  that  his  request  had  been 
misunderstood.  He  repeated  it  more  clearly,  and 
again  the  response  was  the  same.  Meetings  were 
continued  throughout  the  following  ten  days,  and 
four  hundred  members  were  taken  into  the 
church.  In  telling  me  this  story  Moody  said,  "  I 
wanted  to  know  what  this  meant.  I  began 
making  inquiries  and  never  rested  until  I  found 
a  bed-ridden  girl  praying  that  God  would  bring 
me  to  that  Church.  He  had  heard  her,  and 
brought  me  over  four  thousand  miles  of  land  and 
sea  in  answer  to  her  request."  This  story  is  told 
in  the  life  of  D.  L.  Moody  by  his  son :  but  now 
let  me  continue  it.  That  girl  was  a  member  of 
my  church  when  I  was  pastor  at  ISTew  Court. 
She  is  still  a  member,  still  suffering,  still  confined 
to  her  own  room.  When  in  1901  I  was  leaving 
England  for  America  I  went  to  see  her.  She 
said  to  me,  "  I  want  you  to  reach  that  birthday 


THE  PEAOTICB  OF  PEAYEE  127 

book."  I  did  so  and  turning  to  February  5  I  saw 
in  the  handwriting  I  knew  so  well,  "  D.  L,  Moody, 
Psalm  91P  Then  Marianne  Adlard  said  to  me, 
"  He  wrote  that  for  me  when  he  came  to  see  me 
in  1872,  and  I  prayed  for  him  every  day  till  he 
went  home  to  God."  Continuing,  she  said,  "  Now, 
will  you  write  your  name  on  your  birthday  page, 
and  let  me  pray  for  you  until  either  you  or  I  go 
home."  I  shall  never  forget  writing  my  name 
in  that  book.  To  me  the  room  was  full  of  the 
Presence.  I  have  often  thought  of  that  hour  in 
the  rush  of  busy  life,  in  the  place  of  toil  and 
strain,  and  even  yet  by  God's  good  grace  I  know 
that  Marianne  Adlard  is  praying  for  me,  and  it  is 
for  this  reason  that  to  her  in  sincere  love  and  ad- 
miration I  have  dedicated  this  book.  These  are 
the  labourers  of  force  in  the  fields  of  God.  It 
is  the  heroes  and  heroines  who  are  out  of  sight, 
and  who  labour  in  prayer,  who  make  it  possible 
for  those  who  are  in  sight  to  do  their  work  and 
win.  The  force  of  it  to  such  as  are  called  upon 
to  exercise  the  ministry  can  never  be  measured. 
The  personal  word  must  again  be  forgiven.  I 
never  stand  up  in  any  assembly  at  home  or 
abroad  without  knowing  that  three  people  nearer 
to  me  than  any  others  will  pray  for  me,  my  wife, 
my  mother  and  my  father.  Oh,  the  power  of  it, 
and  the  humbling  of  it !  It  makes  a  man  feel 
that  he  must  be  in  line  with  such  praying,  and  he 
is  afraid,  f  Yet  it  makes  him  strong  for  he  knows 
that  "  more  things  are  wrought  by  prayer  than 
this  world  dreams  of."  /  Oh,  for  the  multiplica- 


128  THE  PEACTICE  OF  PEAYER 

tion  of  those  who  will  devote  themselves  to  this 
special  labour  of  intercession. 

With  all  that  we  have  attempted  to  consider 
in  our  minds,  we  lift  our  faces  to  the  face  of  our 
Lord  as  did  the  men  who  watched  Him  pray  in 
the  olden  days,  and  say  to  Him,  "  Lord,  teach  us 
to  pray." 


on  Theological  Seminary-Speei 


1    1012  01085  8985 


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